[Glorantha] Re: Benefits of Illumination

>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 17:58:48 +0000
> From: "Simon Hibbs" <simon.hibbs@gmail.com>
> Subject: [Glorantha] Re: Benefits of Illumination
> To: glorantha_at_rpglist.org
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> I'd certainly agree with this in the context of the Third Age. What remains
> of Nysalorian Illumination is a fragmented parody of the orriginal and most
> (but I would argue probably not all) 'modern' Nysalorian Illuminates are
> Occluded.
>
>

It is easy enough to try to model Nysalorian illumination using the rules in ILH2 and the outcome is that most such illuminates are occluded most of the time. Perhaps one of the differences is that whilst the lunars regard this as a bad thing and cope badly with it (six out of seven such people die) the Nysalorian approach regards this as a legitimate learning experience.

Third age Nysalorian Illuminates would believe that it is the destination of enlightenment that matters - whether you get there by the high road of illumination or the low road of occlusion is not really that important. The Lunar examiners are probably rather horrified at this attitude, after all occluded people running around tend to be bad for the people around them.

> However they are still aware of the All at some level and hence are still
> Illuminated.
>
>

I agree that the fundamental insights of Nysalorian and Lunar Illumination should be the same. What is different is the way that each approach goes about trying to teach those insights and coping with the consequences.

> Peter Metcalfe:
> The Lunar Examiners could try to "cure"
> illuminates by shocking them with All. But IMO
> this would require far stronger manifestations than
> they actually feel safe in handling (as well as
> being likely to kill the patient).
>
>

Its an interesting idea because it would mean that using Lunar techniques brings the Lunar advantages/disadvantages even to an existing illuminate. Which in this case might be a higher chance of becoming illuminated rather than occluded but also with the drawback that 6 out of seven that are occluded fail to survive the experience. Of course this might work in reverse but I do not think that Nysalorian illuminates intervene much in the progress of people once they have started on the path, they may not really have the means to do so other than by the "normal" means of manufacturing a situation that would confront someone with the All.

Perhaps some of the documented wrongs of the Gbaji cult were actually illuminates manufacturing sufficiently strong challenges from the All to shock another illuminate out of occlusion - regardless of the costs to onlookers of their actions. As those actions would sometimes involve betrayal, chaos and other undesirable things the bad reputation of these cultists would be easy to understand. To an extent the illuminates are playing to a different set of rules and aiming for objectives that nobody else could understand anyway - within their worldview what they are doing is perfectly reasonable and justifiable its just that to everyone else its unacceptable and perverse.

> Given the limitations on Lunar Illumination that has
> been presented in ILH-2, I don't think the acquisition
> of magics is cost-free at a personal level.
Or perhaps not without challenge. The level of that challenge would of course vary. For true cost-free magics from an otherworld entity the level of challenge could perhaps be equivalent to the level of the entity itself - so W6 and up for the more commonly worshiped entities.

> Instead
> once the illuminate has successfully proven the
> god is unreal, he acquires a vice which is the
> opposite of that religion's virtues (thus cowardly
> for a Heortling god, sacrilegious for a Praxian
> spirit etc) as a mark of his rejection of that
> religion's mores.
>

I would use this mechanic as the cost of failure of the above challenge - using the existing rules on Derangements to set the level of the new ability/flaw.

--
Nic