StormBull - Kill Chaos! Loath Chaos! Fear ?!?!?

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From: Mr Robert McArthur (mcarthur@fit.qut.edu.au)
Date: Fri 01 Oct 1993 - 00:58:36 EET


Clay Luther writes about StormBulls:
>
> Another note on fear and loathing: I have an especially hard time convincing
> my players, especially the SB player, that they would have fear and loathing
> about anything, especially chaos. The SB player approaches chaos with the
> simple mentality of "it must be destroyed" but this is simply a learned
> response from the *player* and not from the *character*. The shallowness of
> the response is saddening; the player doesn't really understand why his
> character would want to destroy chaos. He does not understand the fear and
> loathing aspect of Glorantha.

Actually, I believe that SBers are probably one of the few god-worshipping peoples (:-) who need not have the particular *fear* of chaos that is part of the rest of many Gloranthan mythologies. This is due to:

  1. Stormbull overcame the devil, thus setting up an enormous advantage for his worshippers. Being such a integral part of the (perhaps GL inspired) myths of the world, it makes the SB's place even stronger. They have a much better chance of *knowing* they can win. (Some people may say that SB didn't do it, the spike and cosmos did. This point is not often made near a SBer for some reason...)
  2. In the Cults of Prax writeup, SB has the runs of mobility, beast and death. It would be facile to say that those beings associated with the death rune don't fear it,but I believe it gives them a whole new way of looking at life and, especially, what happens after death. I certainly don't think that I could imagine myself (in 1993, Earth) knowing what it *really* feels like to play a character who is a rune lord of a death-rune-weilding deity in an existance where gods can (almost totally) manifest; and where life after death is proven (to the simple minds of almost every SBer at least) by ancestors et al.
  3. In CoP, it says that SB will pursue the souls of his worshippers slain by chaos up to the pits of entropy itself thereby giving those slain by chaos a *much* better chance of "living" through it and joining SB in his immortal battle (etc etc. They all seem to have one :-) No other cult writeup that I have seen even mentions such a benefit (They don't need it 'cos they're too busy running my character would say ;-)

Therefore, I don't think that SB worshippers have nearly as much to worry about as other mortals wrt chaos. Loathing yes. Fear, well, perhaps some but tempered by a knowing and *trust* in SB. God-f(e)aring people in Glorantha are more interested in their souls, I maintain, than their current existance. Of course, they still have to live... I would maintain that most godworshippers in Glorantha have faith, the strength of which is like that of the martyrs and saints. They *know* what they have to do here. They *know* where they are going if they do what they are supposed to. Personally, I find it hard to put myself in that exact situation.

So, (at last - phew!) I think your PC may need to feel a bit more loathing (yeh! slaughter chaos! kill lunars! drink! shout! fart! throw up! sleep..sssszz) but not, particularly, fear.

Robert

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