From: ngl28@rz.uni-kiel.d400.de
Date: Fri 01 Oct 1993 - 18:07:58 EET
I still don't hold with POW deterioration for spirits. One reason is the
almost non-existant difference between outer spirit plane and god-plane, as
someone pointed out in today's daily. If shamans regularly visit (and
presumably raid) the god-plane via the spirit plane, the borders most be
gradual (I doubt that even Blueface would dare to confront a deity like
Yelmalio/Antirius face to face, except on mythical terms - i.e. on a
heroquest, with sufficient limitations for the actions of the deity,
produced by the ritual reenactment.)
So the main worry with non-deteriorating POW for spirits is that the older
spirits get gross? Easy to handle: don't allow spirits with no ties to a
living being, i.e. the mundane world, a POW check. (The (RQ3) rules are
qquite diffuse on the matter of POW checks for spirit combat anyway: if
both sides win one round, and then break off, will both have earned their
check?) The only discorporate spirits to get POW checks would be fetches of
_living_ shamans, allied spirits, or spirits (permanently) dominant
possessing a living being.
(Might work for ghoul spirits with dead bodies, too...)
Where would this lead? The weaker spirits would be captured and enslaved by stronger ones, or make it to their mythic origin (like the beast deities) and enter a new cycle of life.
Gross spirits would need worship or gifts of POW to increase their POW. Treat each worship received as you would a POW-check for characters, with the flat 5% chance (does this rule come from RQ2?) of success.
What kinds of spirit would one encounter?
In the frontier zone of the spirit plane, the spirits of the recently deceased start on their way outwards, ducking predating spirits. The predators lurk there just for this reason, to be able to catch (and enslave) the less lucky ones.
Beasts butchered with the use of Peaceful Cut would make their way directly. What about deaths occuring by natural forces like predator animals? Do the predator animal deities provide the equivalent to peaceful cut for their offspring? In that case the only animal spirits to be encountered would be those of beasts killed by unnatural predators (like civilized humans, although these might have their food procuring deities perform similar services, without their being aware of it), disease or old age, the latter extremely unlikely. (Plant spirits in the presence of Aldryami would be treated in a similar way.)
For sentients the Peaceful Cut would be replaced by a proper burial ritual.
Another kind of spirits may be created when dreams go wild. These spirits
(like emotion spirits) become a reality on the spirit world, if the dreamer
perceives them as real enough. (The differencce between humans and dragons
is not the facct that their dreams manifest, but only where they manifest).
To get powerful entities of this kind, assume that some predator (like
ghoul spirits) capture the dream/emotion, and rob their emotion power -
similar to learning spirit magic in RQ3. (Dreams going wild: remember your
last attack of high fever, and you'll know what I mean. Some drugs induce
similar states of mind...)
Someone asked after the why for ghoul spirits. I see them as especially malign or desparate spirits of mortals (possibly of a cult like Gark the Calm or Zorak Zoran, both with an easygoing attitude to undead) who crave an embodied existance so much they'd even feed on corpses. They might also be a sidebranch of Vivamort, since the hunger rune most certainly is involved, possibly Vivamort cultists who failed transformation into Vampires and now make the best out of their afterlife.
Solar questions:
How do the Teshnans, another extremely solar orientated culture on Genertela, interpret the reascension of the sun at the Dawn? Do they share the Orlanthi/western point of time, or the Dara Happan?
And: If the Dara Happans are right, oughtn't we change the term "Solar Time" into something else? How do the Dara Happans count the years when no Lunar official oversees them?
Did the lesser Darkness have no light, or was there a deity of the winter sun, like Elmal, Antirius or Yelmalio, to shed meager light? How is the story told in Pamaltela, was there a time of cold (after Qualyorni aka Moorgarki was defeated), or was there a time of heat (when the Artmali empire perished, and the fiery Nargan desert replaced the sea of Glorantha's first Lunar Empire)?
Did the Greater Darkness only start when Orlanth wasn't there to protect Elmal (Yelmalio, Antirius, whomever) against Zorak Zoran, who slew/mortally wounded what remained of the sun and made the darkness complete?
The Western tales of the Darkness mention the ice age, no chaos. Do they give reasons for the sudden change in climate? Did they see a sun then? What does Sog City's university library tell us?
And at last a semi-announcement:
I'm currently working on a hex-grid map for Central Genertela,
for use with Dragon Pass boardgame rules. So far I've included/guesstimated:
Dragon Pass (boardgame map, slight changes on the north-eastern border wrt
forests, based on Troll Pak),
Prax (Nomad Gods map, reinterpreted after the map in Cults of Prax/RQ2),
Balazar, Elder Wilds (the hex-grid from the GW-version's inlay maps,
enlarged by 128%),
Dagori Inkarth (from RQ3 Troll Pak, overlapping with Dragon Pass and Nomad
Gods, various mismatches wrt distances, but more detail),
Choralinthor Bay (the Dragon Pass maps from RQ2 and the Home of the Bold
booklet, and the maps from King of Sartar, which don't agree with the maps
in Genertela Book),
and Northern Tarsh/Eastern Imther (bordering on the maps mentioned above).
I'm still looking for reliable maps with sufficient detail, especially southern and western Maniria, the western part of the wastes (Hidden Greens, Rockwood Mountains), and (all of) Peloria.
(Heortland, Hendrikiland and the Shadow Plateau were/are especially tricky,
since the different maps give conflicting places for major features like
Whitewall, the Hills of Lead and the shorelines of God Forgot and south
of Prax.)
Was there ever a map for "Masters of Luck and Death" (the boardgame)?
Once I'll have done the maps, I'll start with the pieces. As base information I'm going to try and use the population estimations given in Genertela Book, and the sections about notable persons etc. for some of the special units. Generally I'd like to include more physical magic for western types.
Any help and information is highly appreciated. If things work out, I'll present the result at Convulsions 94, and (before) at the German RuneQuest Con (at Pentecost).
Anyone else on the net actively trying/interested in trying to expand Dragon Pass? We might even start our own sub-list ;-)
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