The picture that started it all...

This is the first image I ever drew of a duck, back in the Spring/Summer of 2003. I'd moved back to Bolton from Bristol, was supposed to be writing my thesis up, and getting into Glorantha in a big way for the first time. I'd not really drawn much since leaving school, and the composition is somewhat static, but I did like how it came out. It was a bit of a fluke in some ways, as many attempts since then have been less successful.

The big influence for this picture (though obviously not in terms of panoply) was Ralph Horsley's lovely illustration on page 101 of Wyrms Footprints. Ducks 101 indeed! Obviously, everyone's ducks will vary, but I really liked how Ralph expressed the duck part of 'anthropomorphic ducks'. The short, thin bird's legs; the swollen belly and rump; the large head; the exaggerated (relative to humans) proportions. I like my ducks to waddle just a little, after all!

My own sketches are slightly more anthropomorphic than Ralph's (as much by accident as design, at times), but that picture will always define ducks for me.

Confounding My Academic Nemesis

Those who have followed my travails will be aware of my continuing academic disagreements in the field of durulzology, with no lesser a personage than Mr Keith Nellist. His residence in the Antipodes, home in itself to all manner of strange explorations in the durulzological sciences, has only exacerbated this rift.

In a letter to the Editor of the Glorantha Digest, Friday 3 February 2006, Mr Nellist stated that he was "going to compare [Dr Stansfield's] Caladraland stone heads to an Erich von Daeniken-style Chariots of the Gods theory - in other words, one that I do not really believe."

Though I personally think a comparison to the wholly eminent research of Herr von Daeniken is not pejorative in any sense, this resulted in a strident response from myself, to wit:

"If you are implying, [Mr Nellist], that the fact that I alone have met, befriended and caroused with the hitherto unknown Caladran duck tribe, ignored of anatopology; that I alone have been trusted with their secrets, for they will meet with no others; and that I have no photographic or representative evidence to prove my claims whatsoever, other than a quick sketch which curiously includes the word 'concept'... somehow invalidates the empirical basis of my research, then I'm outraged."

Nevertheless, Mr Nellist had a point. My evidence was somewhat limited; my recollection hazy. Therefore I embarked upon a new expedition into the Caladran jungles, and was overjoyed to bring forth new, wholly irrefutable evidence for my claims. I ask, gentle reader, whether such penetrating insights could possibly be the product of a madman or a charlatan?

Kuaktzulub's Ladder

Of Luak's firstborn, only Kwala'ikki and Drulzekka guarded their father. The First Tribe, descended of Zlalok Zorn, were overcome by rage and Chaos. The Second Tribe, descended of Umatathoa, fled and gave themselves over to worship of his rebellious son, Orlok. The Third Tribe, descended of Klolak, were overcome by inaction and dulled by their mysticism, and driven to the east as Guanote'ela fragmented under the assault of Chaos. Now they live in fear of the First Tribe, who dwell in the same seas.

Only the Fourth Tribe, descended of Kwala'ikki, remained true to Luak. They were the poorest and most humble, but were aided by Kuaktzulub, the greatestchild of Zlalok Zorn, who held back from the sins that engulfed his fatherand in so doing became the first tribeless drulzek. Together, Drulzekka, Kwala'ikki and Kuaktzulub journeyed into the depths of the world, as they sought to free Luak. They found a passage that wound deep beneath the mountain that imprisoned him, down into the great abyss in which He was held.

Below them they could see the burning, raging form of their creator, flightless as they and trapped in his donjon. Then Kuaktzulub took his great obsidian weapon, which he had won from the Scaled King, and sliced it across Drulzekka the Ancestress' belly. He drew out her intestines, which he wrought into a charnel ladder, and cast it down into the abyss. Yet it would not reach Luak, so he turned to demand the sacrifice of Kwala'ikki. Overcome by horror, the Fourth Son had danced away from Kuaktzulub's razorclub, and fled gibbering into the darkness.

Unperturbed and immune to any craven vice, Kuaktzulub knew the task that lay before him, and slit open his own belly, revealing the steaming mass of innards within. These he affixed to Drulzekka's on the great ladder. Still it would not reach to the bottom of the abyss, so there Kuaktzulub, god of death and evisceration, and Luak, the fallen creator, remain to this day. Kwala'ikki overcame his terror and watches over them, deity of what the humans call the Vent, but which the Drulzekki know as Trickster Mountain.

There, in its great shadow, the remnants of the Fourth Tribe live, guarding Luak's legacy. Kwala'ikki has fooled the humans into thinking he is their god: when his flaming tail feathers flutter above the crater rim they cry in terror; when he belches and the earth shakes they panickedly sacrifice to assuage his anger; and when he is overcome by flatulence, they take his noxious fumes as signs of divination.

The disciples of Kuaktzulub remain, the greatest warriors of the Drulzekki beyond the Zorns. They are tribeless as their ancestor, and seek to capture their enemies, who are then ritually disembowelled by Kuakti priests on the skull-formed ziggurat of the temple of Luak. Their intestines are cast down the gore-slick steps into the lava-lit smoking lake out of which the temple rises.

Beneath the smoking lake is Kuaktzulub's Realm of the Dead, a horrid mirror image of the realm above. He collects the intestines, and adds them to his ladder, a ladder that will one day prove long enough to rescue Luak, so that He will return to lead the Drulzekki to greatness. When a Kuakti warrior dies, he is ritually disembowelled and sent on a reed boat into the smoking mists, so that his god may take him.

The Fall of Zlalok Zorn

The greatest warrior of the Drulzekki was Zlalok Zorn, the First Son. At first he fought Chaos, driven by strife and violence, glorifying in the primal contest. As the battle raged, the Darkbringers realised the error of their ways, but instead of seeking to repent their injustice to Luak, they elected to place the Golden Man in the sky as the Second and Lesser Sun, who shone with false pride, and could never match the radiance of Him.

When Zlalok Zorn saw the Golden Man climb upon his false throne in the sky, he was consumed with rage. Some claim that in his anger he was overcome by the Chaos that he had so recently fought, falling to the great evil of theVoid. Climbing to the very top of the mountain that entombed Luak, he leapt into the sky, and with one stroke slew his brother Umatathoa, and stole his winds, granting for himself and his followers the power of flight, which all other Drulzekki had lost.

Then Zlalok Zorn rose into the sky with his companions to face the Golden Man himself. His foe's fire was fuelled by hubris, but was still powerful, and burned off all of Zlalok's feathers, leaving him clad only in his disfigured, leathery hide. Yet he struck too, and wounded the Golden Man, so that the False Sun fled in pain to the west, falling from the sky. There he hides under the earth, tended by the poultices Earth Witch, until he can gather the strength to rise again.

Zlalok Zorn took his companions, the First Tribe, to the Gates of Dawn in the far east. There they await the Golden Man's attempt to reclaim his usurped throne every morn, and Zlalok Zorn rises to fight him in eternal battle. Each day the Golden Man is wounded, and though he shines down upon creation for a time, he has but only half the kingdom of Luak. Zlalok Zorn's followers became the Zorns (or Sorns), vicious warriors of the Eastern Isles who continue their progenitor's battle.

The Coming of Darkness

Luak shone down on Guanote'ela, which grew under his gaze. In the rich matter of First Child grew many things, and first and greatest of all was a shining white egg. From this hatched Drulzekka, ancestress of the Four Tribes of the Drulzekki, her chosen people who grew from the eggs of her unions with the Four Sons, each tribe bearing the form of its mother and the personality of its father.

Other races and beings also grew from the rich matter of Luak's First Child, not least the dwarfs and trolls who revelled in the dark substance of the land, and the elves who tended the plants that the Drulzekki fed upon. Least of all of the races was that of Man, the slave-race, cursed with the inability to swim or fly, whose gangly hide was unaddorned with the beautiful plumage of Luak's Chosen.

It was during this golden age that Umatathoa was seduced by the Earth Witch, a powerful daughter of First Child whose magics permeated Guanote'ela. Their child was called Orlok the Stormfire, who lay with his mother and fostered the embers of rebellion in Man. It was thus also in Man that grew the sins of pride and greed in the riches of Guanote'ela, which took semblance and form in the being of the Golden Man, a slave who called himself Emperor.

Though Orlok, the Golden Man and the Earth Witch frequently bickered, they were united in their opposition to the Drulzekki. They united with the False-Tongued Troll King and fought against Luak's Chosen, so that the First and Greatest Sun wept tears of fire that corruscated the land. Finally Umatathoa cast his son, Orlok Stormfire, up at the sun, and so doing sheared off Luak's burning wings, so that the Cosmic Wanderer plummeted to Guanote'ela and fell deep into the matter of being.

With their spite and treachery, those who would become known as theDarkbringers then buried Luak's burning form under mountains of dark earth, so that the Fire and Light was trapped and extinguished to His Chosen. Thus Darkness enshrouded creation, and bereft of the light of Luak the Void squirmed at the thing that existed within it, and rose against Guanote'ela.

The Drulzekki were splintered, and faced their greatest test. It was in their failure to unite on the true path that their race was sundered, and cast down from its exalted state. With the fall and maiming of Luak they had lost the power of flight, and were presented with the choice: did they turn to fight Chaos, as even the Darkbringers were doing, or did they attempt to free Luak and restore his glory?

The Ducks of Caladraland, Part the Second; The Drulzek Creation Myth

What follows are the central creation myths, as told by the Caladran tribe. They're just meant to exist in that context. Hopefully they show a body of durulz myth on its own terms, and perhaps indicate how I think the ducks can possess a variety of views on these matters, as humans can.

For the God Learners out there it mimics many things (not least mainstream Caladran mythology), but goes its own way on others. It is a revised version of a slightly more conversational and humorous attempt placed on Lokarnos.

[Thanks for the note, Benedict and Jane! In hindsight this myth also, incidentally -- and accidentally, more's the point -- supports the hypothesis that the ducks might have been astronauts, whose spaceship was crossing the galaxy when it developed problems, burst into flame and crashed on a new world... and is perhaps buried beneath the Vent. At least that's what von Daeniken would have said. Erm, this is going in a direction I hadn't really intended...]

THE DRULZEK CREATION MYTH

In the beginning, before Myth or Time, Luak the Great Cosmic Wanderer flew across the Infinite Void. He had grown hungry during his timeless migration,and out of such hunger grew in thought and form His first great creation: the spark of Preordial Fire. It burned enticing in light and lustre, consumed and consuming as was Luak's hunger, and He devoured its power until the fire became the fuel, and the fuel the fire, merged as one.

The Preordial Fire roared through His belly, and from its spent waste coalesced the great realm known as Guanote'ela, First Child, abob in theVoid and above which Luak circled and flew. Though all but a part of the first form of Fire had departed, its power remained, and a great conflagration grew within Luak's body. His feathers sweated lavic blood, and in so doing gave birth to the First Son, Zlalok Zorn, the manifestation of Strife and Violence.

Still the inferno grew, and Luak cried his great call across the Void, his breathing oscillating rapidly as he blew out the burning winds of his Second Son, the Wind, blustery Umatathoa. Yet still the burning inside would not abate, and drew great salty tears to his eyes, which gushed over Guanote'ela as Klolak the Sea, the Third Son.

Then a great irritation and itching befell His beak, and Luak sneezed ou tthe small, remaining portion of the Preordial Fire as Kwala'ikki the Mischief-Maker, Fourth and Final Son. Finally Luak could take no more, and His entire form burst into flame, illuminating all as the First and Greatest Sun.

The Ducks of Caladraland, Part the First

With all the discussion on ducks, and perhaps thoughts of expanding upon the notion of ducks in Maniria-exclusive-of-Dragon Pass, I thought I'd throw in... well, not counter-theories as Keith might have jokingly asked for, but alternative viewpoints that go a little way toward noting why I like the idea of 'mythic pluralism' among ducks, which, like many of the Elder Races, tend otheriwse toward more singular concepts in many people's thoughts.

Inspired by references to ducks in the coastal regions of Maniria-exclusive-of-Dragon Pass, I started investigating the possibilities of duck communities in the Holy Country, particularly in Caladraland. After nearly three years of extensive field-trips and research, my investigations are almost complete.

For many fans, especially from the RQ days, I know that the issue of ducks is pretty indistinguishable from that of their cultural trappings (as has occasionally come out in this discussion). As a relative newcomer to Glorantha, I began my researches when the Monomyth had largely gone the way of shoulder pads, puffball skirts and Plastic Bertrand, and mythic variety was parading around like some Young Turk.

I tried to see how the motif of the duck could be applied in other myth-cultures. I could have portrayed the Caladran duck tribe (and there is but one tribe, in the east at least) as an enclave of Storm worshippers, holding out against the evil human hotheads who wanted to sacrifice them to the volcano, but volcano-worshipping ducks was simply too tempting.

In creating them I was less concerned with a group that fitted in with all the -- well, purposefully hazy, indistinct, speculative and varied --stories as to duck origin, and tried to get something that worked on its own level first. Naturally, their whole mythic outlook was going to be a wee bit different from those kin of the Creek-Stream River.

Their closeness to Fire, combined with a quarrelsome nature that Anaxial's Roster and HeroQuest at least have intimated (in addition to Gloranthanpop-culture), led me towards the Fallen Master-Race thesis (Elder Secrets) and the Ganderland concept was thus ideal. While I didn't want to tie them in wholesale with the keets of Vithela, I liked the idea of 'nesting' hints and vague links that could enrichen the myth.

For their own security, and as a function of the environment in which they live, the Caladran ducks are somewhat sheltered, and live a largely isolationist existence. This provides a myth-culture that is somewhat... truculent... not a little presumptuous, self-affirming of existing principles and can come across as quite strange to some outsiders.

Though fowl (behave), similar to the durulz of Dragon Pass and opposed to certain keets, their breeds are a touch different. Their associations with Water are also somewhat distinct from their Dragon Pass kin -- rather than the riverine and marshland associations, they dwell amid brackish and marine inlets, hydrothermal springs and the freshwater crater and caldera lakes(their major settlement is sited in one of these lakes).

Although the Caladran durulz are what we might technically call volcano-worshippers, there is the issue that the ducks don't actually control the Vent -- not only is waddling up one of the three great Dragon Mountains of Glorantha as a three to four-foot-tall anthropmorphic duck abit of a chore, but there is the added downer that the human tribes displayed a tendency to kill and sacrifice them at every opportunity.

The Caladran ducks are thus divorced from the principal Innerworld element of their paradigm. This is reflected in their myth: the Vent conforms to the Trickster figure in their pantheon, a mountain that is unwittingly worshipped by the human tribes, but is really the child of their own volcanic entity, who was (pace the myths of the trolls and various human tribes) imprisoned by the perfidies of other races.

Since I first researched this breed, they have changed a fair bit, vacillating between the humorous and the serious, the 'never intended for public consumption' and 'I might be able to get people to swallow this'. Now I think they're beginning to get there, whever 'there' is.

(Originally posted on the Glorantha Digest, 4 February 2006.)

Durulz Gods: A Mythographic Addendum

I know very little of mainstream semi-Orlanthi durulz, as John and Mike have described, but will offer a few snippets of my own Glorantha in case you ever go down into Caladraland (where Benedict will suffer the doom of being slowly devoured by the thousand bills of Gor-Gor-Ma!).

Throwing in a volcano doesn't just transmute to Caladraland standard durulz-mythology + volcano god IMG (and general thoughts on myth), so their thoughts on cosmology are a little different (but hey... you can't *not* have duck Humakti).

In my own Glorantha the Drulzekki of Caladraland worship Luak (a subsequent'Luak', as in 'Luak-Luak' is occasionally used; or the term Loueydril for fun games, if it doesn't bring apoplexy) as the big boss god, but don't really represent him in any artistic form, other than a burning sun, which was infinitely brighter than the false sun that currently blemishes the sky. Fire that will blind the sight of all was a bit difficult to achieve, so they tend to stick with a plain biggish circle.

The sarifice-hungry Nexarchs (read priests of Luak) claim to be the manifest representations of their chief god, and wear flaming volcanic headresses--the height of the headress representing the power of the priest and closeness to Luak's fiery grace... if providing the counter of a rather more unstable gait*.

Other gods do indeed allow more artistic representations of their glory... with the obvious exception of Drulzekka, mother of the Drulzekki. Her transition to Gor-Gor-Ma, the Hungry Dark and defender of her children, has proven problematic: how do you draw a durulz with a thousand razor-billed maws of terror? Some vine-shrouded shrines to Gor-Gor-Ma, frequented only by the matrons of the cult, do seem to make a good attempt, however.

Other gods are better depicted. Kuaktxulub the Eviscerator** is probably most described, appearing as a durulz happily drunk with death, cloaked inthe protective rainbow-hued feathers of the firebirds, holding the klanth he captured from the Lizard King and with his belly slit open to reveal half his guts hanging out.

The art of the Drulzekki has suffered somewhat in recent years, however, and few modern representations can match the strange, humongous 'Drulzek Heads' that litter the near-primeaval forest landscape of (parts of) Caladraland. They represent old Drulzek gods and heroes, many of the latter lost to current legends.

Kwala'ikki the Trickster makes his home in the Vent, under which Luak was imprisoned ages ago. He guards his father until the time when enough sacrifices have been made to Kuaktxulub that he can gather up their entrails and make his gut-wrought ladder to climb down and release the Creator.

The stupid humans of Caladraland think that when the bright fire-fountains of the mountain jet into the sky, it's their 'god' erupting. Bah! That's just Kwala'ikki poking his flame-feathered head up to get a break from hisfather's constant rumbling anger. He's taken to like being called a god by the Caladrans, and finds it hilarious. He is starting to develop airs and graces, mind...

There are not too many gods worshipped by the Drulzekki: Luak, Kuaktxulub and Gor-Gor-Ma are among the most common. But occasionally other deities arefollowed, such as Ghumba the Golden Hippo. The Drulzek War Hippopotamus is a strange creature, found in the steaming volcanic mudpits that lie close to the vent, and from which it draws its vigour. Its purplish-blue hide is broken by tens to hundreds of rock-hard irridescent glass orbs, which provide a 'studded armour' of sorts.

Ghumba is represented by the Guardian of a Drulzek hippo-rider regiment, appearing as a crude golden idol of savage god (who is reputed to have a hide of gold and armoured orbs of purest diamond). Captives are sacrificed to Ghumba in the horrid death dances, squashed to nothingness beneath thepouding feet and rolling forms of bloodthirsty, mud-splattered, ecstatic hippopotami... all to the background of the keening death yodels of the Drulzekki.

*Popoquackapetl XXXVIII, High Nexarch many years ago, claimed that his instabilities in movement were not something to be laughed at (or that he'd had too much palm wine), but a mortal reminder of the omnipresent powers ofthe Rumbling Earth to Luak's chosen.

**Kuaktxulub is (mistakenly!) called Humakt/Hueymakt by the durulz elsewhere, possibly from the phrase Huey Makt (meaning 'great warrior'). Evisceration Yodel Berserk is rather different to Death Song Berserk, however.

(Originally posted on the Glorantha Digest, 24 April 2004.)