Questions on the History of Balazar

[m0n0cular]

OK, so continuing the Balazar thread...

Some really interesting stuff here. I'm particularly interested in some of the thoughts early in the thread about High Bridge.

I've recently run a quest about making the case to Dwerrow for leaving the Rockwoods to join the other water deities in filling the Chaos Void at the centre of the world after the explosion of the Spike. That moment when the summoning happens and waters become rivers in response has fascinated me for some time, and I was keen to explore how it might have been done, who did it, why the response was so universal... oh, lots of things really. It's just such a pivotal moment in the Gods War.

This precedes me reading Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings which suggests the Elf Sea may have been created during time. The thread a bit ago about the Windstop and the Great Darkness was really useful for ideas about climate during the Great Darkness.

In the quest the Elf Sea has answered the call to fill the void and left, leaving everything - well - high and dry. Dwerrow and the other water spirits in the area are called too, but I wondered how that might pan out in terms of a localised myth. So this becomes a tale of them being called to refill the Elf Sea. Turtle Mother and others go to the Rockwoods where Dwerrow is busy helping the Greatway dwarves' early efforts to rebuild the World Machine by powering their machines.

The quest becomes one of telling Dwerrow he has a higher calling, and either forcibly taking him from the dwarves or convincing them that they should allow him to leave. There are things to resolve too that explain Dwerrow's nature during Time, like why exactly is he so raging and fast flowing, and what is the High Bridge?

Some conclusions from the quest:

Dwerrow leaves with great enthusiasm. That boundless energy explains his fast flowing nature

The dwarves allow him to leave, but they exact a toll - the High Bridge is a yolk that ensures he still works their machines while also flowing to the sea.

The freezing conditions of the Great Darkness mean Turtle Mother must give Dwerrow her speed to help him flow fast towards the sea. Thus are turtles slow moving on land ever more.

Dwerrow recognises Turtle Mother's sacrifice by giving her Turtle Landing where turtles can safely lay their eggs.

So there it is. In my Glorantha, High Bridge definitely precedes Time and the essential role it plays in ensuring continued service by Dwerrow in helping to repair the World Machine goes a long way to describing why nobody else can claim to own it.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by m0n0cular

[M Helsdon]

14 minutes ago, m0n0cular said:

That moment when the summoning happens and waters become rivers in response has fascinated me for some time, and I was keen to explore how it might have been done, who did it, why the response was so universal... oh, lots of things really. It's just such a pivotal moment in the Gods War.

The Syphon River in the Holy Country of all the waters of the world refused the call of Magasta.

16 minutes ago, m0n0cular said:

This precedes me reading Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings which suggests the Elf Sea may have been created during time.

The Lake of Death would probably have been a remnant of the Glacier which swept down over most of what is now Peloria during the Storm Age and receded during the Great Darkness. The Elf Sea probably dates to that time, being a remnant of melt ice. The Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings seems to be from the Grey Age?

 

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, M Helsdon said:

The Lake of Death would probably have been a remnant of the Glacier which swept down over most of what is now Peloria during the Storm Age and receded during the Great Darkness. The Elf Sea probably dates to that time, being a remnant of melt ice.

Could be from the point when chaos passed through Tork, melting the mountains, and then the Glacier.  Perhaps the Elf Sea 'drowned' some of the chaotic beasts that followed in the wake of the main horde?

[Jon Hunter]

13 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

The Syphon River in the Holy Country of all the waters of the world refused the call of Magasta.

The Lake of Death would probably have been a remnant of the Glacier which swept down over most of what is now Peloria during the Storm Age and receded during the Great Darkness. The Elf Sea probably dates to that time, being a remnant of melt ice. The Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings seems to be from the Grey Age?

 

I have always seen the elf sea as a lake with incoming and outgoing water flow, and part of the wider arcos river system.

[m0n0cular]

20 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

The Lake of Death would probably have been a remnant of the Glacier which swept down over most of what is now Peloria during the Storm Age and receded during the Great Darkness. The Elf Sea probably dates to that time, being a remnant of melt ice. The Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings seems to be from the Grey Age?

Yes, definitely makes sense for The Ancestors of the Lenshi Kings being from the Grey Age - with a bit of digging I've found this The Silver Age and the Dawn which has a great map showing the Elf Sea.

 

6 hours ago, Jon Hunter said:

I have always seen the elf sea as a lake with incoming and outgoing water flow, and part of the wider arcos river system.

This is where I've started from too. So perhaps the Elf Sea predates the melting of the glacier, and in fact what the melt does is reveal the sea once again as the ice retreats?

 

18 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Could be from the point when chaos passed through Tork, melting the mountains, and then the Glacier.  Perhaps the Elf Sea 'drowned' some of the chaotic beasts that followed in the wake of the main horde?

I like this a lot. Once it's revealed as the glacier retreats the sea gets straight back into action by drowning chaos beasts and that's what gives it the 'Lake of Death' moniker.

 

21 hours ago, m0n0cular said:

In the quest the Elf Sea has answered the call to fill the void and left, leaving everything - well - high and dry

In my Glorantha, when the Elf Sea answered the Magasta's Call it didn't do what other water spirits did, leaving a trail that became a river. It left, completely. Hence the urgency for local water spirits such as Dwerrow to repopulate it. Splitting hairs perhaps, but that means it wasn't the Elf Sea spirit that drowned chaos beasts - instead it was all of those spirits who remade the sea by repopulating it with water after Magasta's Call. Perhaps another reason for being called the Lake of Death, because in fact its spirit had sacrificed itself to save the world?

That could set up the fragility of the sea which leads ultimately during time to its blue elf population dying out. Murthdrya alone wasn't strong enough to keep things going when whatever befell the old aldryami forest across the land during Time occurred. So we end up with the current situation where the blue elves are long gone and the Elf Sea is considered a treacherous inland sea. 

Edited December 15, 2016 by m0n0cular