[Hero Wars] Horse biology inquiry

[Erik Weissengruber]

Came late to the party.

Nice to read an implementation of the Setting/Emergent stories ideas. I drew on them for 2 Glorantha games. An abortive Dragon Pass one, and a long-running Pavis one. Using Heroquest 2.0.

I have only one question: where is the biology in all of this? Did you do any thinking about horse behaviour, physiology, or mating as you prepped for the game?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Erik,

I split your post into its own thread for a couple reasons, one of which is that you posted to the first of two existing threads: [Hero Wars] Black Horse Troop and Grazer preparation and [Hero Wars] Liturgy, spirits, dragon magic, money god, death god. No big deal.

For fans of Do dragons have penises? and the associated discussions (linked in that source), I'm going to be disappointing. I haven't given much thought to the issues of horses as such, at least not to that extent.

Several variables remain important parts of my preparatory notes, and could easily become plot points as we proceed.

1. Diokos breeding is pretty horrible: the mare has to be a mundane horse, and they only occasionally survive giving birth to the diokos foal. My thinking about that is that horses are fucking expensive in raw (real) economic terms, and the Order of Damnation has probably put some effort into correcting this limitation on their (and the Troop's) power.

2. Whether anyone has tried mating a diokos with a hyal ... well, that would be an important thing to consider, right? For many, many reasons. Perhaps the latter is durable enough to endure the gestation and birth better than an ordinary horse. Perhaps the nigh-identical spirit-capabilities of both un-horses can work together in some fashion, perhaps with healing and fertility spirits involved. And what might such progeny be like? Chalk up yet another reason why Black Horse sorcerers and Grazer shamans (specifically La-Ungariant) ought to talk to one another once in a blue moon (no pun intended), and it's the same reason why those overly imaginative Lunar experimental sorcerers would be very interested.

3. So far I've been playing diokos and hyal as sidekicks, providing nonverbal but eloquent snarky commentary on the behavior of their associated characters. I haven't developed much personality for them. I'll post on our latest session soon, which will explain why I may not be able to get to this aspect of play in detail.

Best, Ron

[Erik Weissengruber]

One aspect of emergent play that I like is that players kick in background knowledge as NEEDED, not in terms of trying to stake a social position such as "I am the one who knows everything about marital arts/medieval weapons/science." I am looking at AP reports for instances of players bringing personal expertise to the world in a functional, creative, and non-dickish way. So if the game does take a bio turn, let us know.

Can you also keep your eyes open for when your players bring their real-life knowledges to the setting?