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Ducks or Durulz in Glorantha


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1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Nochet is one of several such cities, and probably the one most likely to have a durulz population of several hundred.

Yes, there are some ducks in Nochet.  There's a clan (or family) of Ducks who live at the Palace of Desaranis.  They are prominent among the merchants of Imarja's Plaza and have some protection there.

There are more in the Marshes south of the city than in the city itself though.  From the Index: "The Eye Ring clan of Ducks arrived here shortly after Starbrow’s Rebellion and the start of the first Duck Hunt.  They and their newtling allies have nestled in near the edges of the Marshes."  Many aid Stumptail, the "Talar" of Baurvo Sump on Duckprint Isle, "a horribly scarred and disfigured newtling who hates all Lunars with a burning passion."

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've seen 2 kinds of real-world duck shown in various RQ contexts:  the all-white "domesticated duck," and the green-headed / ring-necked Mallard (drake).  Plus, maybe, some vaguely intergrade or variant forms (I'm just going off memories, so I *may* have seen other sorts & just not be recalling at the moment).

Is there any (canonical) reason why other sorts may not occur?

 

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1 hour ago, g33k said:

I've seen 2 kinds of real-world duck shown in various RQ contexts:  the all-white "domesticated duck," and the green-headed / ring-necked Mallard (drake).  Plus, maybe, some vaguely intergrade or variant forms (I'm just going off memories, so I *may* have seen other sorts & just not be recalling at the moment).

Is there any (canonical) reason why other sorts may not occur?

None at all, at least in the East. Ducks are just one variety of keets that were transplanted to the Solkathi shores, probably by the westward invasion of that sea. Types and coloring in the Solkathi area may be limited by what the sea carried along.

Different coloration scheme keets probably can interbreed without any trouble. I wonder whether different bird shapes can, and if so, whether there will be some compromise type (e.g. duck) or whether one or the other parent will be dominant. In Gloranthan praxis this probably doesn't come up where there are socially accepted circles in which to marry/reproduce, but in the case of a population stranded in a foreign place, such a development may have happened.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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2 hours ago, g33k said:

Is there any (canonical) reason why other sorts may not occur?

 

Because some plumages are a pain in the arse to draw!

I'm not being entirely unserious. Ducklore in Glorantha is so lightly sketched that the choice of something like the colour of feathers is up to the artist (on the very, very rare occasions that ducks are shown in colour in publications). It's more an issue of artistic whim and the nature of the composition.

The influence of Disney's Duck Tales and Gerber's Howard--and their four-colour simplicity--is strong on anthropomorphic ducks, so I'm not surprised white ducks appear on, say, Steve Purcell's Apple Lane cover or Jennell's WF#15 cover (or other work). (Daffy is less of an influence for other artists - though I use black quite a bit.) White and off-whites are very useful in how they can provide clarity and focus to an image. The Barks is strong.

The (male) mallard is well-known and provides another very quick and easy signal ("Duck!") to its audience. It's not necessarily the easiest set of colours to work into a composition, though. I tend to draw mallards a bit as I like green and am perhaps better at working it than some other hues. If you're wanting to depict some variation in a duck's feathers, the green-white-brown transition provides that in a simple, localised, uncluttered way. (With some other real-world plumages, it can get messy quite quickly.)

But, yes, there are lots and lots of other types. When Martin H. and friends did their write-up of the Anas clan in Tales #19, they depicted a varied mix of Ruddy Shovelers, Bluebeaks, Amberdrakes, Mergansers, Pinfeathers, etc. I know Simon B. has painted ducks as teals (as does RQ3 Monsters), and my last one was an American Wigeon. I'm sure artists will keep messing about with new things.

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9 hours ago, g33k said:

Is there any (canonical) reason why other sorts may not occur?

5 hours ago, Quackatoa said:

Because some plumages are a pain in the arse to draw!

Not canonical!

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5 hours ago, Quackatoa said:

But, yes, there are lots and lots of other types. When Martin H. and friends did their write-up of the Anas clan in Tales #19, they depicted a varied mix of Ruddy Shovelers, Bluebeaks, Amberdrakes, Mergansers, Pinfeathers, etc. I know Simon B. has painted ducks as teals (as does RQ3 Monsters), and my last one was an American Wigeon. I'm sure artists will keep messing about with new things.

More seriously, though...  Thanks for this!

Does anyone know of a copy of that image (those images?) from Tales #19?  It looks like something I'd really like to take a gander at!

 

- Steve, the g33k

 

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34 minutes ago, g33k said:

Does anyone know of a copy of that image (those images?) from Tales #19?  It looks like something I'd really like to take a gander at!

I should have been clearer: the depictions were verbal, rather than visual. (Simon did accompanying inkwork, but you can't really tell breeds from them.)

Jests aside, I think it is important to say a word on canonicity with regard to ducks: there basically isn't any. And I think it rather unlikely that there will ever be any to the extent people think of when considering fantasy races in role-playing games.

Why? Ducks are a weird, leftfield outlier, whose power derives from their ambiguous, oddball mystery. They're liminal, be it inside Glorantha or outside it. Less is more. The questions are more amusing than the answers. That's their strength. Jeff and Rick have both affirmed this view in the past. It could change, but I'd be somewhat surprised.

Short answer to people thinking about ducks? ("Stop, you deviant.") Have fun. Make stuff up as you like.

 

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One of the things with Gloranthan "canon" is that it actually covers a very small range of Gloranthan information. Most of the details that could be documented for Glorantha haven't been written about. That includes ducks/durulz. Most RQ2 duck pictures were drawn by Jaquays, and are line drawings. They don't lend themselves well to portraying feather color and such, as previously mentioned above. The original source of inspiration for ducks, the 1950's era Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks, were all originally done in color, but with very simple coloring and only white feathers. Nobody really bothered with coming up with any detailed back story for them beyond a few sentences. You could probably put everything written about the ducks (other than the occasional stat block) from 1966 to 1990, on to a single sheet of paper. It was during the Tales of the Reaching Moon era of the 1990s that people started people writing more about them, and illustrating them more. To be blunt, just because something is portrayed as X in Glorantha doesn't mean that it is the only way something is. In this example, ducks being mainly drawn as having white feathers doesn't mean they don't have other colored feathers as some sort of canonical decision. Most of those sorts of details haven't been thought about much. Similarly, nobody has decided for the purposes of canon that all Jack O'Bears have brown fur like a Grizzly Bear. Maybe up north near Valind's glacier there are polar jack o'bears, or somewhere more tropical there are panda jack o'bears. Then again, maybe they are just a singular chaos horror and they all look totally identical... No biggie to me either way. All I ask is don't make them skeletally thin like the GW figure. Stick with the Archive Miniatures look which is far more menacing. :-)

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Hope that Helps,
Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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Well, DAMN.  I feel stupid now.

Here I've been all focused on the various illustrations to figure out what sort(s) of real-world ducks were "canonical" sources for the sentient Gloranthan race.  Finally I just read the text in the RQ2 book:

They come in a variety of different colored feathers...

Rick pretty much said as much, above.  But with this, it's clear I needfn't even have asked...  :P

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/11/2016 at 1:25 AM, Rick Meints said:

Maybe up north near Valind's glacier there are polar jack o'bears, or somewhere more tropical there are panda jack o'bears. 

I am trying to imagine how the Rabbit Hat Farm scenario in Sun County would play out if the jack-o-bear disguised as a scarecrow was a giant pumpkin-headed panda instead...

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  • 2 months later...
On 12/05/2016 at 4:11 AM, TRose said:

 If I remember the story right.

 The owners of an old and long out of business miniature company called Archive miniatures came up with two  figures called Barbarian Duck and his old lady as a novelty item. This was BEFORE Runequest.

 The  owners of Archive miniatures where friends with Greg Stafford and co and for fun decided to come up with a way to add the Ducks to Glorantha so people could use the minitiarure . I used to own a number of Archive miniatures as they where the original Glorantha  miniatures.

 

Story by Steve Perrin is here (from 22 minutes):
http://mikelaff.podbean.com/2011/04/07/steve-perrin-talks-homefront-heroes-for-icons/
 

Miniature was

DSX0JkV.jpg

and was inspired by the 1976 fisrt issue with Red Sonja:

howard-the-duck-marvel-comics-1976.jpg

Edited by 7Tigers
Image fix
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While a number of creatures produced by Archive minis were "made Gloranthan", like the Bugbear becoming the Gloranthan Jack O'Bear, ducks are not one of those creatures. Ducks were added to Glorantha for a few reasons, but mostly because Greg Stafford enjoyed reading Uncle Scrooge (McDuck) and Howard the Duck comics.

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Hope that Helps,
Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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