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What is preventing Ralzakark from Creating a New Empire of Light?


EricW

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10 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

To describe Ralzakark as a broo is like calling Harrek a pirate or Argrath an adventurer. 

True of itself, but rather missing the point. 😜

It is and it isn't.

The fact that Ralzakark is a Broo means that he has managed to transcend his bestial nature to become the god-King of Dorastor. Or has he? The bestial nature of Ralzakark has probably been long-debated. some say "Once a Broo, always a Broo", others point to his civilised ways, others point to him having fathered Send Valu.

Having Ralzakark as a Broo challenges many of the stereotypes that Broo face, which is always a good thing.

In my Dorastor, Ralzakark was not always a Broo, but returned from a HeroQuest as a Broo, shocking his friends and acquaintances. He has been a Broo for an awfully long time, though, over a thousand years.

 

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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3 hours ago, soltakss said:

It is and it isn't.

The fact that Ralzakark is a Broo means that he has managed to transcend his bestial nature to become the god-King of Dorastor. Or has he? The bestial nature of Ralzakark has probably been long-debated. some say "Once a Broo, always a Broo", others point to his civilised ways, others point to him having fathered Send Valu.

Having Ralzakark as a Broo challenges many of the stereotypes that Broo face, which is always a good thing.

In my Dorastor, Ralzakark was not always a Broo, but returned from a HeroQuest as a Broo, shocking his friends and acquaintances. He has been a Broo for an awfully long time, though, over a thousand years.

 

Oh yes, some of Ralzakark is certainly naturally a broo.  Some is something else entirely, and the whole of him is something else again.

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4 hours ago, soltakss said:

It is and it isn't.

The fact that Ralzakark is a Broo means that he has managed to transcend his bestial nature to become the god-King of Dorastor. Or has he? The bestial nature of Ralzakark has probably been long-debated. some say "Once a Broo, always a Broo", others point to his civilised ways, others point to him having fathered Send Valu.

Having Ralzakark as a Broo challenges many of the stereotypes that Broo face, which is always a good thing.

In my Dorastor, Ralzakark was not always a Broo, but returned from a HeroQuest as a Broo, shocking his friends and acquaintances. He has been a Broo for an awfully long time, though, over a thousand years.

 

On the other hand, though, to say that Ralzakark isn't a broo by that logic sounds to me like it's akin to saying that Harrek isn't a pirate and that Argrath isn't an adventurer. That these descriptors are serious understatements and obviously don't sum up the totality of the thing they're describing doesn't make them wrong or invalid descriptors, it just means you need to add some qualifiers.

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Ra-lzakark may be child / avatar / himself of Ra-gnaglar.

not a broo but the guy who succeed in the family.

Or why not Ralzak-ark as the gbadji part of Ark-at illumination (with a succesful or not split body and soul  between dark and light illumination) not a troll but a guy with a graceful face (well not human face...)

 

 

 

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In our very non-canonical Glorantha, Gbaji had a powerful, devoted wife.  After the final battle, to which our bold PCs heroquested to save her and restore the proper timeline, Arkat tasked her, some might say cursed her, with preserving Gbaji's good aspects.  She thus acts as a significant counter to Ralzakark, and some of the worst aspects of the Empire.

YGMV.

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4 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

We know of four forms/parts of Ralzakark, which leads me to wonder something.  A lot of the time Gloranthan figures have seven components. 

Are there another three yet to be revealed? 

The sevenfold symbolism might be RW culture bleeding over. Seven is an auspicious number in Abrahamic religions, after all (at least in Christianity). 

In Dara Happan culture, a soul is sixfold, and their notion of perfection is centred around the number ten (the Fortunate Succession states this explicitly, which might have to do with the original ten cities, or something else), and they have five cardinal directions (W,S,E,N, and Centre). 

I forget how many parts a soul has in Heortling culture. Someone else can probably clarify. 

We also find mostly five elements (Fire/Light, Dark, Water, Earth, Storm) with some omitting Storm and having four, and others splitting Fire and Light (Dawn Era Ralian, iirc) or adding Moon for six. 

The Moon has seven phases, and adds a seventh soul to the Dara Happan soul system for sevening. More of a specific cultural innovation than Glorantha in general, I think. 

Not so sure about the other civilizations, other than that trolls count in base eight or something? I forget. 

EDIT: I forget how exactly many parts Nysalor was cut into, but seven wouldn't surprise me.

Edited by Sir_Godspeed
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One of the properties of some Illuminates seems to be that they are able to be part of a group consciousness. Belintar and the Red Emperor are the two most obvious, both adopting other minds into their consciousness as a way of transcending mortality, and also gaining huge magical powers by having their mortal mind fused with a divine consciousness. Others, like Yelmgatha or Sedenya, are content to share their consciousness with divine beings. It’s to do with the experience of having that moment of oneness with all, being willing to open the boundaries of the ego.

(I am indebted to @Nick Brooke for pointing out that egi sounds like a plural form of ego)

Ralzakark I think is also something along these lines - but he has multiple bodies in the mundane world. Some are broo, some are (like the Flat Man) nearly pure magical manifestations. But there are some we don’t know about as well, some of which will not be broo but more constrained manifestations. 

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6 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

We also find mostly five elements (Fire/Light, Dark, Water, Earth, Storm) with some omitting Storm and having four, and others splitting Fire and Light (Dawn Era Ralian, iirc) or adding Moon for six. 

If we add Chaos as a "zeroth element" (with Gorp as Chaos Elementals), we get seven. Just saying.

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35 minutes ago, MOB said:

I read that and added another +1 to my Illumination roll

When programming, mistaking an index beginning at 1 or 0 for the other option (being "off by one") is sometimes called an "obi-wan error."

 

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C'es ne pas un .sig

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On 7/24/2020 at 4:23 AM, Qizilbashwoman said:

Ralzakark has broo parts of themself. But Ralzakark is not a broo anymore than I am an arm.

Baby steps.

Sry, every part of Ralzakark is just a broo, and this weird connection they have is just a chaos feature.  Prove me wrong.

Edited by Darius West
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On 7/24/2020 at 2:07 AM, Ali the Helering said:

Which is why he looks like a hollow human, or an unicorn.... 

Broos can look like just about anything.  If a broo buggers a unicorn, you get a unicorn broo.  If a broo buggers a mold for a statue, you get a hollow human, and kudos for creativity.

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Ralzakark is presented as a Broo by word-of-god (i.e. Sandy) in sources. "Ralzakark, King of the Broos. The Regal Broo is head of the most sophisticated culture in Dorastor." (and no, this is "generic" Ralzakark, not just the Unicorn Emperor, who gets a sub-header). 

Also, three of four listed forms are Broo (assuming Vostasador the Replicator wouldn't be a non-Broo leader of a Broo tribe), while the fourth seems to be just some magical construct.

Edited by Akhôrahil
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On 7/24/2020 at 1:12 PM, Leingod said:

On the other hand, though, to say that Ralzakark isn't a broo by that logic sounds to me like it's akin to saying that Harrek isn't a pirate and that Argrath isn't an adventurer.

I wasn't saying that Ralzakark isn't a Broo. I was saying that "Ralzakark is a Broo" is not necessarily missing the point.

11 hours ago, Darius West said:
On 7/23/2020 at 5:07 PM, Ali the Helering said:

Which is why he looks like a hollow human, or an unicorn.... 

Broos can look like just about anything.  If a broo buggers a unicorn, you get a unicorn broo.  If a broo buggers a mold for a statue, you get a hollow human, and kudos for creativity.

Not all Broo are born Broo. You can become a Broo by taking on too many Chaos Features, by being turned into a Broo or as a result of a HeroQuest. There are many more ways to become a Broo.

In my Dorastor, there is an unspoken connection between Ralzakark, his daughter the Lady Darna and her unicorn Darnala. But, my Dorastor does vary.

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Ralzakark is presented as a Broo by word-of-god (i.e. Sandy) in sources. "Ralzakark, King of the Broos. The Regal Broo is head of the most sophisticated culture in Dorastor." (and no, this is "generic" Ralzakark, not just the Unicorn Emperor, who gets a sub-header). 

Sure, Ralzakark is a Broo. Similarly, the Only Old One proved himself to be both a Troll and Not a Troll. Ralzakark transcends many things and Brooness may well be one of them.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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5 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

I'm with @soltakss on this one.  Does anybody really care that Ralzakark is a broo?  If he were really just a super-chaotic unicorn King of Dorastor, and not a broo, would anything significant change?

Would you suddenly be "oh yeah, glad to see you dude!"  I think not.

Agreed except that, in any case, you probably be « glad to see you » when you meet it. I assume you dont reach demigod status , do you ?

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6 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

I'm with @soltakss on this one.  Does anybody really care that Ralzakark is a broo?  If he were really just a super-chaotic unicorn King of Dorastor, and not a broo, would anything significant change?

Would you suddenly be "oh yeah, glad to see you dude!"  I think not.

But his being a broo informs all he does. Ralzakark wants to emulate Ragnaglar. He wants to rape Glorantha. His broo-ness is his driving force.

To me, it’s like saying it doesn’t matter that Jar-eel is a Lunar.

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1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

But his being a broo informs all he does. Ralzakark wants to emulate Ragnaglar. He wants to rape Glorantha. His broo-ness is his driving force.

It's clear to me that Ralzakark is no longer a broo. He is more a transcendent chaos proto-god (I believe he's very likely tripartate). He seems to have shed his personal broo-ness to have become something more. He's worshipped so has a hero Soul, and has magic over life and death. The God Learners who brought him back clearly messed with him, or he messed with them - I'd like to think that's where the unicorn head came from.

He also knew Nysalor personally which adds to the mix for me. That Ralzakark wants to emulate Ragnaglar is incorrect. Ralzakark is an avatar becoming Ragnaglar. I'd also speculate that Hezel Darong is a mask of Ralzakark as Thed, and Urcheth is a mask of Ralzakark as Mallia (bilocation has always been the mark of being a god).

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On 7/26/2020 at 8:05 PM, David Scott said:

It's clear to me that Ralzakark is no longer a broo. He is more a transcendent chaos proto-god (I believe he's very likely tripartate). He seems to have shed his personal broo-ness to have become something more. He's worshipped so has a hero Soul, and has magic over life and death. The God Learners who brought him back clearly messed with him, or he messed with them - I'd like to think that's where the unicorn head came from.

He also knew Nysalor personally which adds to the mix for me. That Ralzakark wants to emulate Ragnaglar is incorrect. Ralzakark is an avatar becoming Ragnaglar. I'd also speculate that Hezel Darong is a mask of Ralzakark as Thed, and Urcheth is a mask of Ralzakark as Mallia (bilocation has always been the mark of being a god).

In essence every hero is a proto-god by this reckoning.  Most heroes, for example, have a Nemesis, and many have a fetch of some description.  To say Ragnaglar is somehow not a broo is however absurd.  Just because he is embodying the Unholy Trio doesn't make that less the case imo.  No illuminated broo detects as chaotic, but does that mean they are no longer broos, or no longer chaotic?  No.  Illumination just hides this component of their character, but they can still have active chaos features. He isn't a deity, he's just a very naughty broo.

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On 7/24/2020 at 4:23 AM, Qizilbashwoman said:

Ralzakark has broo parts of themself. But Ralzakark is not a broo anymore than I am an arm.

If any part of Ralzakark is a broo then all of Ralzakark is a broo.

On 7/24/2020 at 4:44 AM, Qizilbashwoman said:

he's got three bodies, he's able to reproduce normally with Sesseine and bear a normal female child (Send Valu, consort to the Red Emperor), one of his forms is the Flat Man

Normal female child, or covert ogre illuminate?

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On 7/24/2020 at 9:23 AM, soltakss said:

It is and it isn't.

The fact that Ralzakark is a Broo means that he has managed to transcend his bestial nature to become the god-King of Dorastor. Or has he? The bestial nature of Ralzakark has probably been long-debated. some say "Once a Broo, always a Broo", others point to his civilised ways, others point to him having fathered Send Valu.

We know for sure for at least two incarnations/aspects of Ralzakark that he is a broo, whether the unicorn head or the scorpion arm.

 

I am far from convinced that Ralzakark the lieutenant of Gbaji was born as a broo, though.

 

This might belong into the "Your Dumbest Theory" thread, but did you ever wonder where Arkat left his aspect as a Chaos Monster when he went to Ralios? He may have severed it off.

Just look at the name: Ralzak-Ark(at).

 

On 7/24/2020 at 9:23 AM, soltakss said:

Having Ralzakark as a Broo challenges many of the stereotypes that Broo face, which is always a good thing.

In my Dorastor, Ralzakark was not always a Broo, but returned from a HeroQuest as a Broo, shocking his friends and acquaintances. He has been a Broo for an awfully long time, though, over a thousand years.

Yeah, what Simon says. But how do we know that he served Nysalor?

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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