Gloranthan spirit plane

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From: yfcw29@castle.edinburgh.ac.uk
Date: Wed 08 Sep 1993 - 18:34:47 EEST


To what extent do the shamanism rules in RQ3, or even RQ4 for that matter, simulate the gloranthan shaman's experience of the spirit plane? My favourite character is a baboon shaman, so this has realy made me think about this. There are a few clues in some of the published material, mention is made of different spirit 'families' such as plant spirits being friendly to elf shamans, wolf spirits being friendly to telmori shamans, etc. Do these different kinds of spirit comingle randomly, or are there special 'plant spirit place' on the spirit plane.

Ars Magica has an excellent shaman sourcebook, this details a fascinating view of the spirit world. An Ars Magica wolf tribe shaman arrives in the 'wolf place' on the spirit plane, here game animals are easy to find, friendly wolf spirits abound and the world is presented entirely from a wolfish point of view. Sight is keener, smells are richer, etc. The vulture place, by contrast, is a barren plane scattered with carcases. Sight is very important in the vulture place, but smells are weak and indistinct. This presents a far more interesting landsacpe than the dreamy grey blur that the gloranthan spirit world is portrayed as. In this interpretation each mundane world view has it's own spiritual echo, the shaman's 'home turf' where certain friendly spirits are easy to contact. Of course access to this home turf is easier from some places than others. A wolf tribe shaman would find it very difficult to find the wolf place if he was discorporating from a ship in the middle of the ocean!

I get the impression that there is more to the gloranthan spirit plane than the currently published rules allow. Has anyone else out there run a spirit oriented campaign? I would be very interested to hear any alternate views on this. I think the hero plane recieves a lot of attention, when the spirit plane is much nearer to hand and so presumably has a greater day to day influence on people's lives.

Simon

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