You ask, we answer. Q&A is a Question and Answer opportunity for Glorantha fans to ask questions directly to Greg Stafford, the creator of Glorantha, and others. He will arbitrarily choose one or more submitted question each month and answer it.
Caveat: We're going to use many inappropriate terms herein, like "species" or maybe even "gravity," both of which are concepts essentially outside of Gloranthan consciousness. These inappropriate vocabulary usages here should not imply that use of these concepts occurs within Glorantha.
Greg Sez is an ongoing column of material made available by Greg Stafford, creator of Glorantha. Other columns of Greg Sez include:
Feel free to e-mail a question for consideration in a future column.
Question from HERVE ANCELIN. Answer copyright ©1999 by Issaries, Inc. This page may be freely linked to, and one copy may be printed for personal use, but any other reproduction by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited.
Q: Why did the Giants let their children drift on magic cradles along the Zola Fel ?
A: The question implies that the giants had a choice on this matter. They did not. They have no more choice in this than a human woman has over her own biology. The comparison would have this woman not "let her children drift enclosed in an amniotic sac down her birth canal."
The analogy is intentional, and can be a good example of how something is not always exactly what it appears to be. The giants in question here are tremendous being, far more huge than Gonn Orta. The peaks of the Seven Giant Mountains are just small parts of the giantess. The journey of the baby down the Zola Fel, and subsequently down the Homeward Ocean, is the giant equivalent of giving birth.