Gloranthan Web
What is it with bald Lunar women?
Cos, you know, the Goddess had hair.
I guess it started with that picture by Tom Sullivan, with the Lunar priestess with her plunging neckline standing in front of a statue of a Bald Goddess. I mean we all love a plunging neckline (though it isn’t that flattering to my aging skin), but really, what is going on here? Even MoB lampooned it with princess Anderida of Raibanth and her bald pigeon.
Is it that they shave their heads so they look like the moon or is that they are so preternaturally absent minded that they keep forgetting to put on their wigs?
The Goddess, in most of her aspects, has sport an assortment of highly complex coiffures. Each hairstyle has distinct meaning, and there is a good living to be made in the Heartland as hairdresser or wig maker. Style denotes social status, cultic affiliation and even intent of the wearer. The Balancer style (as worn by Natha), for instance, is often worn when seeking restitution. The implied threat is obvious to all, and is never invoked lightly.
Not only the women sport elaborate hair in the Empire. The noble boys of Alkoth and Carmania grow their hair as a sign of devotion, as do professional soldiers. On reaching adult hood if the man wishes to pursue a life other than a devotee of Shargash, he ritually cuts his hair and gives his braid to the high priest. In the event of war this will be presented back to him and he will be told Shargash Commands! He will wear his braid as a crown.
Devotees of Shargash, of course, never cut their hair, but bind it in blood red silks, which they wind around their heads and tie in elaborate knots. Many a visitor to Alkoth has met a brutal death by beating for comparing this tradition to the habit of Rufelza to loop her hair 7 times upon her head.
Part of the reason for the domed helmets amongst Heartland corps is that soldiers tradionally have their hair tied up upon the crown of their heads in cloth of their regimental colours (this is a conceit that dates back to the defeat of Sheng Seleris, & is considered a minor inspiration of Moon Son).
As officers progress in the herocult of Yanafarl, they are taught the correct hair knot of their rank. Cultic awards take the form of elaborate hair ornaments, pins and hair cups.
Don’t even get me started on Orlanthi hair etiquette. It amazing what they’ll do because they know their god will keeps their hair out of their eyes.
Random yelping!
I’m not sure if I’m a good fit for an art blog as I am officially the Laziest Artist Simon Knows. So, what this will mainly be will be my random musings on marginal things.
There may even be some artwork*.
Note: I am the Art Greg; my artistic ideas about Glorantha are fickle, and tend to be contrary. I don’t subscribe to a lot of what has now become canon**.
* only if I can overcome my own indolence, of course.
** I’m very proud of my Babeestor Gori player, who scaled CliffHome to petition CragSpider… in the dark & the rain… while 5 months pregnant. And so was CragSpider.
BRP Hardcover Edition
Cthulhu Invictus Companion
Curse Cthonians
Cthulhu Invictus wins Golden Geek Award
The Chronicles of Future Earth
Cthulhu Invictus contest
Really cold for 4th Sunday outdoor activities
Fourth Sunday project/practice get together starting up again!
- Archery
- Thrown weapons
- Armored combat
- Rapier
- Pot luck food
- Armor, shield & weapon making
- Leather work
- Generic shop time
- Arts & sciences projects of all kinds: Patterning, sewing, learning.
- Book research for persona, heraldry, you name it.
20/10 Hindsight
Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.
A year ago, more or less, I got an out-of-the-blue phone call from Mongoose, informing me that my contract was being terminated. I was Mongoose’s longest-serving staff writer by far, having started way back in May of 2003. That equates to roughly five million words, by the way, the vast majority of which were delivered on deadline.
The termination came with a month’s notice and a thank-you, nothing more. Such is the lot of the freelancer.
2010 was a chaotic year. I’m still dealing with the aftermath of my mother’s death. I got married. I ran a marathon. I tried to have a kid, found out I’m very close to infertile, started on a course of IVF. Meanwhile, of course, the world decides to go into meltdown, and I watched as the government pushes the country to the brink of bankruptcy and oblivion. 2010 was almost entirely interesting times.
So, what have I learned? The emphasis here, of course, is on the ‘I’; these lessons are painfully obvious to everyone, but they’re what I need to internalise and take from the past year.
Quality, not Quantity: I was successful at Mongoose primarily because I was able to produce lots of moderate-quality material on command on almost any topic. While that’s useful, I need to aim higher. I must break myself of the mindset that the first draft has to be the final draft. When you’re producing a book a month from scratch, there’s no time for planning, editing, rewriting or anything other than getting words out as quickly as possible, but other companies don’t work like that. Not everyone is Mongoose.
Constraint is Focus: I need to relearn the skill of juggling overlapping projects instead of working on them in series, and to do it all without the pressure of monthly deadlines. I’ve taken to using pomodoro for time management, with good results on days when I can get a good run-up at work. Other days, I’m so squeezed for time that I’m forced to focus. I need to make sure that every day is one or the other, and stop wasting time on the internet.
Fail Better: Remember those five million words? I own none of them. They’re all work for hire, and most of them are written for licensed games so they’re doubly not-mine. For someone who’s allegedly prolific, I’ve written only a tiny amount for myself, and an even smaller amount for public consumption. I’m afraid of failure and obscurity, so I don’t even try. To hell with that. Write, fail, write better.
The World is Strange: It was a year when ‘low orbit ion cannons’ were in newspaper headlines, when the roleplaying industry slouched and mutated, when people talked about twitter being an essential service even as the water pipes froze and burst. The older I get, the stranger the world seems, and that is terrifying and inspiring. The lesson to draw from it is that there may be people interested in my stranger ideas, and to break out of my comfort zone. Stop retreading what worked in 2005… or, more accurately, 1982.
Learn Until It Becomes Habit: I have said and blogged these things before. Every year is next year in Jerusalem, the year I finally write that novel, write that game, change the world. So be it – if I have to repeat these assertions and plans until they are become real, then I will. What I tell you three times is true, and what I tell myself a dozen times will eventually become true.
Love is Enough: And I stood on a beach in Kerry in impossible sunshine and I married her, and that is enough. Everything else builds on that.
Best cup supporter I've found. A stocking stuffer that says "I care about your junk."
A Shocking Fall from Rankings
I'm very surprised to see that http://delaflamme.org has fallen from its previously #1 ranking in Google search results to not even appearing in the first eight pages.
Now I'm wondering what site improvement I made that caused it. Was it moving away from the old URL that had /site/ in it? Is it my new reliance on Posterous.com for posting? Or is it changes in Google's algorithm? If this, then it isn't a very good change as households with sites unchanged for more than a year are now way ahead of this one.Searching for 1/4"x20 t nuts
Just visited Lowes, They have bulk packs of 5/16" t nuts for an entirely reasonable price, but only sell 1/4" t nuts in 2 packs for $1.08. They used to sell a variety of sizes, but no more.
Found them via the web, and though they are available for quite attractive prices from a variety of sources, shipping generally doubles (or quintuples!!) the price.
Anyone have a source for quarter inch t nuts? Does Home Depot still carry them?
