From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Thu 25 Jul 1996 - 21:02:47 EEST
>A few days ago i asked myself if an orlanthi who knows no spirit magic and
>is not initiated to any god can create magical effects. The answer was yes,
>and i then created a beta-system for wild magic.
A good question to ask yourself!
I think my answer is yes, but only with difficulty and danger.
To me, Glorantha is magical only because of the existence of the
heroplane and the godplane (I will refer to the combination of the spirit
plane and hero plane and god plane as 'the otherworld' from now on for
convenience). Yes, I know they draw they draw their energy from the mundane
Glorantha, but its a feedback kind of thing.
So, a mundane person who knows no spirit magic and is not initiated
has no connection to the otherworld, and can thus cast no magic at all.
Sorcery shows that it is possible for them to cast magic, but also shows
that it is very difficult to do so in any reliable way.
Does this mean they can create no magical effects? No. But they
have to find a way to interact with the otherworld to create them. The two
most obvious ways (both dangerous and unreliable) are to interact with an
otherworld being somehow (otherworld beings can be attracted by mundane
means if you try hard enough - going to where they live, leaving out their
favourite foods and calling their name is a good start, but very unreliable
- - I use the RQ4 Spirit Lore for this sort of thing myself) or to go on a
heroquest of some kind (going to a magical place in a magical time having
made some appropriate preparations might get you there, for example).
I think that there are a lot of ways to interact with the
otherworld that are capable of creating magical effects without any spell
casting taking place.
My fragmentary heroquest rules are all based on the idea of 'the
otherworld' being the source of magic, and a 'heroquest' is a journey into
the otherworld in some way (a shamanic discorporeal quest can be a
heroquest if it does deep into the otherworld rather than just hanging
around the mundane world).
David
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