From: Erik Sieurin (BV9521@utb.hb.se)
Date: Wed 24 Jul 1996 - 20:05:25 EEST
The debate/discussion about and around intiation, pantheons and
worship has been most interesting. I thought to comment on it, and
set out to do so. First I thought to comment on every separate
message, but they all touched each other, so that was impossible.
Then I thought to cut-and-paste them together and comment upon THAT,
but it proved too much work. So finally I decided to go freeform and
write what I think about it, adressing it not to anybody in
particular but to anyone interested.
So.
First of all, there is the question of whether the main reason for
worship is the magical effects upon the world, and in such case how.
Consider these examples:
A, Every woman in the village goes to celebrate the death and rebirth
of Corn Boy. As a result, all heads of the households
learn/recover/whatever the Bless Crops ritual. The next day, all
their husbands go out and plow the fields, and the women perform the
Bless Crops rituals. As a result, the village has taken a large step
to avoid famine this year.
B, All the members of the Bull Man warrior society meet at night and
perform the rites of Bull Man. During ceremonial combat they kill the
broos which turn, and touched by the Rage of Bull Man they all
learn/recover/whatever the spells of Face Chaos and Bullrage. One
month later chaos fiends appear in the Big Forest. All the Bull Man
warriors and other warriors walk out in the Big Forest. First the
Bull Men makes their non-bullish brethren staunch enough to Face
Chaos and hold the flanks, then they call up the Bullrage and charge.
The Evil Chaos Fiends (tm) are chopped into very small bits and the
Horrible Threat is gone.
Then consider these variants:
A1, Every woman in the village goes to celebrate the death and rebirth
of Corn Boy. As a result, the lands of the village are blessed and
will remain fertile, and there will be one less problem for the corn
sown by their men the next day after plowing the fields. If the
rituals had failed, then the fertility of the village woul not have
been assured. This failure can be due to ineptitude, the efforts of
enemies, geases broken during the preceding year, or bad luck (aka
Trickster). Some cunning women, including the priestess and her
helpers, have accquired magical powers thorugh their ties to the
Godess. They may, for instance, bless the fields of their husbands in
special rituals so that they give _even more_ than usual. Such things
are, however, "cream on the coffee", something extra.
B1, All the members of the Bull Man warrior society meet at night and
Do you need to quantify the effect of the great rituals as spells (or
perform the rites of Bull Man. During ceremonial combat they kill the
broos which turn, and as a result no horrible chaos manifestation
will appear that year (normally....), and if it does, it will be a
weak one. If the ritual fails, horrible things can happen. Reasons
for failure are the same as for A1, above. And similarily to A1,
certain warriors among the Bull Men, including the Bull Warchief,
have horrible magical powers, most important the Bullrage, and also
the ability to make those warriors not-of-the-Bull immune to the
fear-bringing sight and stench of chaos.
even RunePower, which I'm not sure I like, but that varies with the
day of the week)? Or do we just need to say that people which do not
sacrifice to Issaries get more troubles when travelling? That if the
High Holy Day of Ernalda is a catastrophe, there surely will be a
crop failure this year (unless Something Is Done, with the PC's being
the ones which have to do it)?
That Rune Magic/Runepower is only "cream on the coffee" for VIP's
(like PC's and their Main Adversaries, or the main characters of Gloranthan novellas)?
Now, about Pantheon Initiation. This is how I would run it at this
day of the week on this hour.
People initiate to single cults, but most people initiate to the main
cults of their culture (eg, Orlanth or Ernalda). These cults follow
divine beings that are part of almost every myth in the cultural
portfolio, if only as observers. Game-mechanically, they give access
to the spells of all associated deities. On a roleplaying level, they
provide you with an idea of what is "normal" in your culture, and
what is "different" but "acceptable". (I like ""-marks).
In the rites of your community, you can act the part of anyone associated with
your god (up to and including Bad Guys like the Emperor and
Raglagnar). However, the more knowledgable of the deity in question
you are, the better you are at impersonating him in the rites. In the
sorriest communities, the only Ty Kora Tek representative you have is
an old crone, an intiate of Ernalda, which knows Bless Grave (and the
secrets and lore necessary to achieve the ritual knowledge). In the
Great Temple of the Tribe, you may have a full priestess of the
Crone-godess. Initiation into that cult, ie learning to view the
world from that deity's view, is a very important step.
The accquisition of "worthiness" for a certain deity may be good or
bad for your status outside those particular rites. Becoming a worthy
Trickster increases the efficiency on all levels of many Orlanthi
ceremonies, but a worthy Trickster is usually a pain in the ass. Most
people think the village fool is enough. Suggesting that you are
willing to become a Very Worthy Raglagnar is like, uh, saying that "I'll
go out and rape enough people to start a public outrage so that the
police gets more resources to prevent rapes" today. Ie, a Bad Idea.
Usually, when you need someone Really Worthy as an enemy in some
special ceremony, you summon your enemy (and some high-ranking
associate of the god will appear - like a Broo Chieftain if you want
a Raglagnar.)
Erik Sieurin, who does not think that giving something a name
explains it, but who is fully aware it gives him Power over it, and
thus names as much as possible, making his memory a muddle.
------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 16:51:41 EEST