Flamingos in Glorantha

[mfbrandi]

On 9/28/2022 at 2:07 PM, David Scott said:

Let's not forget naturally occurring sodium carbonate in dry lake beds, Natron is one example.

Please tell me Glorantha has flamingos.

Even ZZ zombie flamingos:

Edited October 2, 2022 by mfbrandi
photos resized

[Squaredeal Sten]

2 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Please tell me Glorantha has flamingos.

Even ZZ zombie flamingos:

Unquestionably yes.  They are a variety of Keet  so presumably they talk.  It is in the Guide to Glorantha  see the index.  For instance 80 000 keeps in the East Isles.

[mfbrandi]

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

They are a variety of Keet  so presumably they talk.  It is in the Guide to Glorantha  see the index.

I don’t know why, but I thought they were all parrot-like. “Flamingo” didn’t make it to the index, but here it is (Guide p. 108):

Quote

Keets are a bird-people similar to ducks. The vast majority are similar to the ducks of Dragon Pass and the Holy Country. The East Isles hold various other tribes: booby, coot, cormorant, gull, merganser, parrot, pelican, puffin, and tern. At least one island boasts a village of flamingo-men. Most have arms and hands, but no wings, although one branch has wings. Otherwise, colors and specific features, such as beak shape, vary widely.

I like this on p. 492 “Chili eating competitions are popular on the island, although the keets normally win.” Presumably this is because like Earth birds they are undeterred by capsaicinoids (birds spread chilli seeds, but the plant doesn’t “want” them to be eaten by mammals).

The specification of keets as two to four feet tall might make for odd flamingo-men, if an Earth flamingo can be 187 cm (over six feet) and mass 4.5 kg. And pelicans roughly the same size as terns. The Procrustean bed of anthropomorphism.

If keets are so into martial arts — must be a 1970s’ thing — you would hope for cranes.

If Glorantha has the durulz, does that mean it doesn’t have “ordinary” ducks, or is that a sign that it does?

[PhilHibbs]

23 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

If Glorantha has the durulz, does that mean it doesn’t have “ordinary” ducks, or is that a sign that it does?

Good question! I had never considered the possibility that Glorantha has talking anthroducks instead of our mundane kind.

[metcalph]

49 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

If Glorantha has the durulz, does that mean it doesn’t have “ordinary” ducks, or is that a sign that it does?

Durulz are more also known as wereducks (ie man-ducks) so ordinary ducks exist.

[mfbrandi]

2 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

I had never considered the possibility that Glorantha has talking anthroducks instead of our mundane kind.

Presumably, it occurred to @Squaredeal Sten, as he immediately reached for flamingo-keets as Glorantha’s flamingos.

2 hours ago, metcalph said:

Durulz are more also known as wereducks (ie man-ducks) so ordinary ducks exist.

Maybe … but possibly not good to lean too hard on IRL etymology of words “translated” from the Gloranthan. Also the theory that Durulz were a race (species) of birds cursed into humanoid form might have led people to hypothesize an original “purely avian” race of ducks that may never have existed (and then squished the words together). Either way, the Durulz might take “duck” as an insult.

Could Durulz and Keets be hsunchen who were cursed to remain in an intermediate form? Maybe for embracing “modern” technology/lifestyles. If, say, all reindeer are Uncolings, then one might expect the avian forms corresponding to Durulz and Keets to be gone from the lozenge if entire species were cursed — which would be a shame.

Bird hsunchen seem to be thin on the ground [sorry!]: there are the Flari owl people, the Ri-si woodpecker people, and that seems to be it — the Qa-ying eagle people having been retconned into wind children (yuck!), requiring an amusing switch of sides in the Battle of Six Herds (Guide p. 283 versus the earlier Well of Daliath).

Still I have my fingers crossed for honest-to-god feathery dinosaur flamingos (although in Glorantha that’s a whole other can of wyrms).

[jajagappa]

On 9/28/2022 at 10:38 AM, mfbrandi said:

Please tell me Glorantha has flamingos

Yes, and a reference suggesting it goes all the way back to WF#14 p.9: "The party was very strange, and the Co!ymar met many unusual people. Among those that they recalled most vividly were the gypsy trolls, a flamingo-man (like a duck, but worse),"

Where there are flamingo-men, there have to be flamingoes.

[AndrewTBP]

There’s regular ducks too, as in water fowl. 
See Guide to Glorantha p. 284

Spoiler

Hsin Yin (large city): Here lived Godunya for almost a century, unrecognized as Emperor in his disguise as a belt buckle salesman. Because of the Emperor's connection with the place, every boy born here receives two bushels of rice and three large fish upon birth, and every girl born here receives three bushels of rice, a chicken, and two ducks upon her first birthday.