[Glorantha] Re: [HeroQuest-RPG] Theyalan Missionaries

In message <20060101132413.ELRX13162.aamta09-winn.ispmail.ntl.com@homemaster> "Jane Williams" writes:

>> Well, sorry, not really. But this isn't the place for me to
>> explain the difference between soul and brain. If you don't
>> understand that, then there is no point in me explaining further.
>
>Not the same - one is part of the other, and now we know it's "soul",
>we can use the more specific term. Simple analogy: "brain" = whole PC.
>"Soul" = important bit of software running on that PC. "Brain damage"
>= "my PC doesn't work". "Soul damage" = "Microsoft Word has been
>corrupted". And the nice missionaries supply a patch to install to
>fix it. That analogy won't stretch any further without breaking, I
>don't think, but it covers that far.

I don't think the soul is part of the brain at all. The idea that it is comes from 19th Century scientific theory when the belief that the brain was the centre of consciousness developed. They didn't want to offend the church by chucking out the idea of a soul altogether so they theorised that it was part of the brain.

>From a real world point of view that's about all we can say with
certainty - no one has ever been able to detect a soul or even establish that it exists. Anything more takes us into the realm of religious belief which is way off topic.

However we're talking about Glorantha where souls do exist and I'm inclined to go along with Joerg that to an Orlanthi his soul is his breath. Which means that to a solar the soul is the light and heat of the sun on his face, to an Ernaldan it is the feel of earth under her feet, an Uz the encompassing darkness around her.

>From this we get to the mental and emotional aspects of the
Windstop. Not only can't the Orlanthi breathe properly but it takes away a mental stabiliser - their belief in the rightness of the world is shaken. Just as happens in the RW that's going to push some over the edge into madness (probably called soul sickness in Glorantha). While it won't be as bad as the Great Darkness the loss of Storm and Earth is going to be incredibly destablising socially. Not so much from the practical effects, bad though they are, but how they affect people lives. I suppose a RW equivlent would be that electricity stopped working - not just that we'd no longer have heat, light and power as we need but that a key scientific fact on which our society is based is no longer true.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/