Pairing Stone Locale

[Evilroddy]

What is at the Pairing Stones? To my knowledge there are the two stones, an oasis without any Oasis People, a nearby darkness shrine secreted in the hills and visited by trolls yearly and groups of Orlanthi thugs/rebels/freedom-fighters who loiter around and cause trouble until the suppression of 1621 by the Coders. Is there any kind of permanent community around the stones or at the oasis. In my campaign there is a group of Gagarthi raiders who make a habit of harassing and robbing less prepared Orlanthi who visit the holy site. It seems a perfectly shameful waste of a good oasis to not have it used by someone/ What do people think?
Rod Robertson

[David Scott]

The Guide says:

Quote:

Pairing Stone: This remarkable pair of menhirs is located on a rocky bluff about 60 miles northwest of Pavis and is holy to Orlanth. One stone is pale blue and the other is pale brown. Both are about 25 feet high and tilt slightly towards one another. The Orlanthi say
Vingkot married one of Tada’s daughters, called the Summer Wife, here.

The Pairing Stone sits over 3000′ above the Zola Fel valley on the high plateau that curves round Eastward and then moves South forming part of Vultures Country. The rain shadow of the Nine Good Giant Mountains 20 miles to the North, combined with the catchments of the Zola Fel to the East and the Adari tributaries to the West, make the area drier than normal. The Grassland is only good 1 in 4 years, and there is no oasis here. The Desolation Hills to the East have petered out here, so with it’s place at the head of the Valley, the winds roar up and over the area.

It’s a Holy site to not just to the Orlanthi settlers down in the valley, but also the 15,000 nomads that worship Orlanth in the Wastelands. Getting up to the plateau from the valley takes time as the only route follows the Zola Fel as it climbs up to the nearby Leaping Place Falls. Many Wind Khans come here to be married, and on Holy Days, many Orlanth worshippers are found flying high on the winds from the Valley below, many fly in on their way to one of the sacred mountains. Occasionally there are flyers from Old Wind only 150 miles away and 2000’ higher. The nomads will tolerate no permanent population here, this is Orlanth’s sacred place. Any herd beasts present in the area are usually for sacrifices.

[Evilroddy]

David Scott:
According to the Book of Drastic Resolutions-Prax there is an oasis at Pairing Stone and there are no oasis people there. Did someone heroquest to change the Pairing Stones condition?
Rod Robertson.

[Jeff Richard]

The Books of Drastic Resolution were not official and much of its material was either the author’s speculation or taken from unfinished draft notes of Greg’s (much of what got changed in the final version). The material in the Guide is the final and official version.

[Evilroddy]

Ah, the Council of Niceaa has been hard at work I see. So there is exegesis in the world of Glorantha too. What would the Gloranthan equivalent of Hadith Scholars be I wonder?
I guess I have some explaining to do to my players when the oasis disappears.
Thank you for the dose of Orthodoxy, Jeff!
Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

[Jeff Richard]

Its a lot easier when the authors are actually living, can say what of their stuff they consider official, and have a publisher that will follow suit! Imagine how much less contentious Late Roman Christianity would have had if they could just ask the source which of these books are official and which aren’t!

But seriously, all the Drastic books need to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Scott Martin]

What I like about this thread is that in Glorantha the “authors” of the world are directly accessible to initiates in exactly this way so anyone willing to sacrifice for a point of Divination (or HQ equivalent) can simply ask them. Your Earth, on the other hand, May Vary.

On the other hand, a certain kind of exegetic process — interpreting and applying the divine narrative of myth — arguably *is* Glorantha but I’m not eager to roll any dice here on what exactly that means or whether the reverse is true. Any of them who go back to the texts instead of asking god — or perhaps because god is unavailable on this topic — are the equivalent of hadith scholars. Anyone figuring someone else’s god would definitely qualify IMG.

On the Pairing Stone, are Wind Khans formally adopted into the family of Orlanth as part of their initiation? Because it’s interesting that in the myth presented here, the wind men are foreigners who become relatives by marrying into the family of Tada, so a native son of Waha might have to be led through some spiritual gymnastics in order to get into the right frame of mind to get married here.

Family of Tada! There were oasis people here *once*. Otherwise why would the Summer Wife come here?

[Evilroddy]

So Jeff, when can we expect to see the first Gloranthan Apocrypha of forbidden knowledge which doesn’t jive with the orthodoxy of the Stafford/Moon Design priests? Will a splinter sect appear and call into question the orthodoxy of the “German Church of Glorantha”?
As to your point about the scholars being alive to consult, I agree and therefore encourage all to eat right, get plenty of exercise and lay off the Hazia and Black Sap! Also, despite your warning about the Books of Drastic Resolution, I think you should cut out all salt! That way we may pester you with questions for years to come.
Scott: I followed your argument up to the point where you expressed reservations about rolling dice. I then picked it up at Hadith Scholars, but the middle bit befuddled me.
This is a very interesting discussion and I hope to learn more about Glorantha’s Orthodoxy by questioning the Magi of the Web.
Cheers and best wishes.
Rod Robertson.

[Scott Martin]

Quote:

Quote from Evilroddy on December 10, 2013, 19:43
Scott: I followed your argument up to the point where you expressed reservations about rolling dice. I then picked it up at Hadith Scholars, but the middle bit befuddled me.

You stuck with me a little longer than I usually do myself! I think that part boils down to the idea that within Glorantha, anyone with the POW to spend can ask god what actually happened or what a distant land is actually like and get up to seven words per point of true answer back. The exception is when god doesn’t know — has never been there, enemy sacred ground — and then even Gloranthans with POW have to hit the books.

Hitting the books is where they evolve scholarly arguments and become hadith scholars as we speculate about foreign lands and other people’s gods. Or they can go there as your players have and can see for themselves the oasis people at Pairing Stone.

Since very few of us out here on Earth spend much time actually talking to Orlanth, the direct question route to knowledge is pretty closed. All we can do on that front is talk to people who do talk to Orlanth, maybe. And we rarely if ever actually visit the sites and see for ourselves.

Better or worse? 🙂

[Evilroddy]

Scott:
OK, I follow you now. Isn’t it a shame that my Pairing Stone Oasis is about to become a ghost place and fade out of existence? Curse Gloranthan Post-destination!
Rod Robertson.

[Scott Martin]

Prax is full of Hidden Greens, man, fading in and out of the world and nobody will believe the great weird ghost stories your players now have to tell! Onward!

[Erick Eckberg]

Hey guys, I had a whole stead up there with Windlords, Storm Voices, and other Orlanthi fanatics, the disappearance of a watering hole is nothing. It’s cool, though, that was my last campaign, imagine my players surprise when they go there this time around, and there’s nothing but a couple lousy rocks…. 🙂

[David Scott]

Quote:

Quote from Scott Martin on December 10, 2013, 19:09
On the Pairing Stone, are Wind Khans formally adopted into the family of Orlanth as part of their initiation? Because it’s interesting that in the myth presented here, the wind men are foreigners who become relatives by marrying into the family of Tada, so a native son of Waha might have to be led through some spiritual gymnastics in order to get into the right frame of mind to get married here.

Family of Tada! There were oasis people here *once*. Otherwise why would the Summer Wife come here?

Wind Khans are the Praxian title for Wind Lords. They are pretty much the same as their Sartarite counterparts, except they are part of the Praxian tradition and not Orlanthi. There are only 16k Orlanth worshippers in the Wastelands compared to 37k in Sartar, so there are some differences in the cult – mainly that only the Adventurous aspect exists. They don’t need to join Orlanth’s family – they are Orlanth’s family.

The Summer Wife myth may be very different to the Praxians or not even important.

[Scott Martin]

Quote:

Quote from David Scott on December 10, 2013, 23:58
Wind Khans are the Praxian title for Wind Lords. They are pretty much the same as their Sartarite counterparts, except they are part of the Praxian tradition and not Orlanthi. There are only 16k Orlanth worshippers in the Wastelands compared to 37k in Sartar, so there are some differences in the cult – mainly that only the Adventurous aspect exists. They don’t need to join Orlanth’s family – they are Orlanth’s family.

So Orlanth among the beast riders is passed on father to son? I imagined it more as an elective men’s society that beast riders are initiated into after some time worshipping Waha — but if not, then I guess no special initiation into Orlanth is necessary as you say.

Quote:

The Summer Wife myth may be very different to the Praxians or not even important.

A great point! Nice to see how important Tada was on the Vingkotling side — maybe they remember or simply imagine a connection with the oasis people at this site even if culturally Praxian Orlanthi may not care.

[Niall]

Tada, the father of the Summer Wife was probably just a great Khan/leader and strong neighbour, with the marriage being an important treaty between the two peoples.

[Author]

Posts