Anstanabli

[Jex]

A few old RuneQuest books refer to a people called the Anstanabli—apparently nonhuman and smaller than human size, and perhaps connected in some way to nature of the Beastfolk.  But there are only a handful of references to them, as far as I can find, and nothing specific.

Unless there's something I missed (which is entirely possible), the following are the only mentions of the Anstanabli:

From King of Sartar, page 86:

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Little People, including the wereducks of Duck Point, who hated the denizens of the marsh; the anstanabli, who would never forgive the winged people; the Wasp Riders
of Windtop, who carried on a long feud with the Bee People of the Holy Country; the Mostali King in Dwarf Run, a source of magical weapons and help, but whose hatred of Aldryami impaired his judgment.

From Sartar Companion, page 183, and The Book of Heortling Mythology, page 45 (this same sentence appears verbatim in both places):

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Velhara first birthed the unseen creatures, nature beings, and the Anstanabli.

I'm just wondering if anyone knows if there was ever anything further revealed about the Anstanabli.  Are they an alternate name for some otherwise attested type of being, or perhaps just a one-off (well, I guess technically two-off) reference that was never elaborated upon?

(This isn't related to my Marshedge project; I just ran across the reference and was curious.)

[jajagappa]

8 hours ago, Jex said:

I'm just wondering if anyone knows if there was ever anything further revealed about the Anstanabli.  Are they an alternate name for some otherwise attested type of being, or perhaps just a one-off (well, I guess technically two-off) reference that was never elaborated upon?

The same text about Velhara giving them birth appears in Heortling Mythology. That occurs before she gave birth to the creatures of summer and winter, and before she gave birth to the beast-folk such as the centaurs and Ducks. They seem to be distinct from spirits and nature beings (i.e. nymphs, dryads, etc.).

Those are the only references I can find, so appears to be one of the many odd references Greg created but never elaborated on.