From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Mon 01 Nov 1993 - 20:35:08 EET
I enjoyed your view of Storm Bulls in Prax as following the old, pre-Waha ways. This is a neat use of existing material which explains how they can violate all those Waha-imposed tribal taboos. I had been using something similar to explain why the Bullies are tolerated at all ('cos they used to
run the whole show, and Waha is a loyal son), but this is even better. Though I'd not call them "contraries", as:
> With such major chaos nests as Snakepipe Hollow to the north and the
> Foulblood Woods in Heortland (not to mention whatever broos and other
> chaos-spawn survive wandering in the mountains) surely the unique skills
> and magic of Urox are essential to survival at times.
Or "essential in places". Maybe there are fixed "traditional" Storm Bull temples near the Hollow and the Print, and Tonaling Greathelm's guys go roaming around Sartar in between sorting out the rest. Still leaves you with the tribal structure of big bad Bullies standing behind the King with their *huge* arms folded and casting menacing glowers... which has nothing to do with fighting chaos, and is the Bull's main role in Sartarite society.
Honestly, (until the Lunars came) there's not *that* much Chaos in Sartar. The reported "Broos at the Big Elm" were probably Poss clansmen upwind of whoever claimed to have seen them.
> ... if Humakt was Orlanth's Sword, was Urox Orlanth's Shield?
No. He was Orlanth's big brother. The question revolving around Humakt earlier this year was whether he was ever a relative as such, or just one of the Five Magic Weapons. No such doubt with the Bull. But you are going to need a new title to replace "Storm Khan" -- any suggestions?
(*note) These incidentally remind me of the pygmy Andaman Islanders, long- time favourites of any mythographer wanting a tall story. I am *sure* they made at least half of their mythology up, it's all so hilarious! (Just my opinion, sorry if I've offended any pious Andamanese on the Net...).
>> Ah. Remember that there's really no such thing as an Orlanth Temple: >> any bare and windy hilltop will do.
> That's a reasonable interpretation, but not supported by the RQ3 rules,
> which define temples as fixed sites. And casting Sanctify isn't necess-
> arily a solution, since you'd need a way to recover your Sanctify spell.
Interpretation? See the PB:G writeup of Orlanthi Religious Practice: "Orlanthi ceremonies are usually held outside." Seemed obvious to me. If it's "not supported by the RQ3 rules", we should change or ignore them.
You could cast Sanctify, step into the Sanctified area, and spend a day praying, I suppose... Or use annual recovery of Rune Magic in a Sanctified area on the High Holy Day... Or you could say that by their very nature all windy hilltops are sanctified on Orlanth's Holy Days... but then you're opening other cans of worms.
Me, I'm not too bothered by Rune Magic recovery: it takes place out of game time, and therefore isn't all that interesting. Now, if only we knew whether recovering Rune Magic was an acceptable use of your 90% temple time... it makes a *big* difference to the life of a PC priest if he has to perform recovery rituals for non-social Rune spells (as opposed to Sanctify, Heal, Bless, Divination etc.) in his own personal time! (I will admit that I use seasonal/annual recovery of Rune Magic as a way of slowing down game-time, preventing number-crunching, and generally making my life simpler).
> (Note that nomads have similar problems with the RQ3 rules, though per-
> haps they time their migrations to be at the holy site on high holy day)
Well, maybe -- but then we're talking about "Generic Praxian Holy Sites", the old altars from Nomad Gods and the RQ2 Prax Map. Which also don't fit too well with the existing RQ3 rules. So, as you say:
> I believe the rules should be changed
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