From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Wed 31 Jul 1996 - 21:18:17 EEST
On my reading of King of Sartar, IFWW and the LBQ occur
mythologically at much the same time (and so could be celebrated with the
same ceremony). The Greater Darkness (called the PreDark in KOS for some
reason) begins with the appearance of Chaos and the loss of Ernalda, then
there is the Stormfall battle at which Orlanth realises chaos cannot be
defeated by warfare, then he leaves on the LBQ. While he is away there is a
desperate struggle by humanity to survive, which is the IFWW - during which
it is not Orlanth who fights alongside them (AFAIK there is no reference to
Orlanth fighting in IFWW) but heroes like Votank and Heort (and deities
like Elmal and Babeester Gor).
And IFWW is not really Universal. GOG says universal mystery cults
- - but lots of cults aren't mystery cults in this sense. Probably the
recently discussed sense of mystery cults as cults of an individual sense
of salvation, rather than large cultural religions, is just what is
relevent here. The Yelm religion, for example, has no direct analogue to
IFWW - probably precisely because to the Yelm religion the mystic struggle
of individuals to survive is less important than the loss and restoration
of the proper ruler of the world, Yelm, and the accompanying loss and
restoration of Justice (in the person of a proper Emperor). Sure, everyone
remembers the Great Darkness as a horrible time with a desperate struggle
for life. But not everone remembers this as a horrible battle against
chaos, and not everyone acknowledges the sense of universal cooperation and
personal salvation normally associated with it either.
>I
>doubt the Brithini follow it.
Actually, I think Zzabur is specifically one of those mentioned as
participating in Cults of Terror (he shows Kygor Litor how to enchant away
the gorp), so maybe they do. But I'm sure lots of other folk don't.
Personally, I agree that the Sacred Time rituals are about the LBQ
- - I see the Sacred Time rituals as being more of a pantheon thing rather
than a uniquely Orlanth thing, whereas the HHD of Orlanth is more about
Orlanth rather than the Lightbringers as a whole. The IFWW rituals are part
of it (they've got two whole weeks, they can fit in a lot of rituals), but
the cults other than the Lightbringers dominate those.
hazia
>Joerg claims Hazia is legal in the Lunar Empire.
I'm with David - source? Is this Gregs current opinion? I tend to
feel that hazia is illegal, or at least the trade is - otherwise lots of
Prax based plots about the suppression of the trade don't make a lot of
sense. I agree that the Lunar empire probably allows the use of many other
weird mind-bending drugs, so I'm not sure why they would discourage hazia
though. A good question. Unfortunately, its such a good plot hook (and a
very important one in my game) that I probably should find a reason.
The hazia written up in the Sun County rules is VERY physically
debilitating if you go into withdrawal - which might explain why its
discouraged by the Lunars, if lots of soldiers become debilitated on
campaign because of its use (incidentally, also a reason why its encouraged
by the Orlanthi in my game...hmmmm). We play it as a lot less severe
normally, though - we play it as a common drug among certain tribes
(Morokanth, as per Sandy's recent suggestion, and Basmoli, to further
amusing rastafarian comparisons, at least), which would be pretty unlikely
if it was that debilitating. Maybe you need to have a system accustomed to
it since childhood, or similarly through long use?
>You seem to think that the LBQ (I took ages to work this acronym out when I
>first joined the Digest - why can't people use English rather than stupid
>acronyms/abbreviations?)
Ummm..... because we are lazy. Time to update the FAQ, though, and
then make sure its well advertised. I've noticed its a bit out of date.
I'll volunteer to update it, if no one else feels a desperate urge.
David
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