From: Graeme A Lindsell (graeme.lindsell@anu.edu.au)
Date: Wed 03 Nov 1993 - 19:00:14 EET
Sandy writes:
>The only GENERTELANS with ideological reasons for opposing slavery
>might be the Orlanthi (at least the only major culture -- I'm sure
>plenty of minor sects concur),
What is the Loskalmi attitude, they seem pretty idealistic and I could see them claiming slavery is evil? The Kralorelans, if they are much like the Chinese, wouldn't really have much slavery, it was never a big part of their culture.
The Orlanthi and slavery: in KoS it says that the Orlanthi in Dragon pass have let the Thrall status fall out of practice, to "emphasize their love of freedom" - of course this is an Orlanthi document. What is the attitude of the Ralian Orlanthi, whom you referred to as real barbarians a week or so ago, towards Thralls?
>but in much of Pamaltela, slavery is
>seen as a facet of the Great Darkness, kin to Chaos. The very fact
>that there is a god of Slavery in Pamaltela indicates the rareness of
>the phenomenon. Genertela has no God of Slavery, because it is
>universal. What's the point? Ompalam has won, there.
This is a strange comment. One could as easily say that Yelm is weak in Dara Happa, because he is worshipped there and that Orlanth rules there, because he isn't. I think Nick would call this a "Lunar philosophy" ie wierd. :-)
The one reference to Ompalam in Pameltela I've seen (the land of Fonrit in Heroes No 6, written by Greg S. and one Sandy Petersen) suggests that Ompalam is a powerful god there (it's in the description of the city cult of Tondiji, which is said to be the greatest in the world, since "major cults such as Ompalam, Yelm and Zorak Zoran are all subservient to Tondiji inside his city"). Of course Fonrit, which is described as being like Moslem Africa, could be the exception in Pameltela. The next ToTRM should illuminate us! In general in Glorantha, if a god is worshipped in an area then he/she/it is considered powerful there, rather than the reverse.
Slavery in Genertela is probably a result of the death of Genert and the need for agriculture, as mentioned a couple of fixes^H^H^H^H^H Digests ago. Most premodern agriculural societies seemed to have some form of slavery: the civilizations in Genertela practice it to survive, to some degree. In Pameltela, agriculture isn't needed to survive as Pamalt provides, at least to the Agimori. Slavery there is simply evil, and people need the aid of a chaos god to practice it successfully. I think that Ompalam would offer magic that in some way makes slavery a desirable, or at least tolerable state: most initiates of Ompalam would be slaves who use his (addictive) magic to make their lives less horrible.
RE DI vs Rune Magic
>It used to, back in RQ I. A priest had the spell Divine Intervention,
>which was one-use. Each point in the spell gave you +10% towards the
The DI spell was there in RQ2 as well. My idea was slightly different, since DI is rolled against all sacrificed [uncast] rune magic, not just a single spell.
David Dunham writes:
>So a priest who asks for help is no longer a priest? While it may be a game
>mechanic designed to limit frivolous DIs, it does abstract the "get me out
>of this and I'll make great sacrifices at your altar" request.
Better than a priest with a POW of 2 IMO, or a rune lord with a POW of 8. In RQ2 a rune lord could lose enough POW to lose his status quite easily.
It doesn't really abstract it that well: people can always forget about those great sacrifices when it doesn't suit them, and suffer accordingly (or not, if their illuminated.)
The current system is more like the god grabbing what he can immediately, much like a Tapping sorcerer or Vampire. :-)
>On a related topic, I've found that the number one question asked in
>Divination seems to be "What does the Big Nasty want to do." My standard
>answer: gods can't read people's minds.
This is already covered in the write up in Divination at the start of the Divine magic section: a god can't invade anothers mind (even a priest's) and can't tell what followers of another god are doing.
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