From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com)
Date: Tue 09 Nov 1993 - 08:49:46 EET
Joerg Baumgartner sez:
> From what I heard of the cult of the Seven Mothers, they are a
> bunch of associates magic only.Their initiates, or those of Yelm
> the Youth or Aldrya's Wood Children, seem to be initiated to the
> pantheon only, but already receive quite a lot magical benefits.
This is a pretty good assessment of the Seven Mothers cult, which is a highly artificial construct (but useful). Some other cults function like the Wood Children -- almost Voria's entire cult, for instance. A number of us have been expressing concern about being automatically initiated into Orlanth's cult at age 15, because of the POW loss this entails, the difficulty in later joining other cults, like Storm Bull or Bagog (:)), etc. Perhaps the solution is to consider the early initiation ceremony as something like the Wood Children -- not so much a full initiation (with POW loss, etc.), as more a dedication to society. He'd receive normal cult benefits, except maybe the ability to sacrifice for Rune spells. The actual "true" initiation may come later, perhaps on a High Holy Day when the initiate has a spiritual experience while participating in the rituals. Suddenly his POW is lowered and he is enlightened.
Geoff Gunner sez:
> Sandy talks about Pairing Stone being popular for weddings, thus
> must have some subtle effect. Well, why not that people just love
> the pomp and circumstance, and the chance to make a special
> occasion *really* special ? Why have everything explainable by
> magic ?
I consider such pomp and circumstance to BE magic. But then, I believe in magic in the real world. When you put on a witch mask, aren't you impelled nigh-irresistably to cackle hideously? When you hear a certain banal old song playing on the radio, aren't you forcibly, even unwillingly reminded of your first kiss, which occurred during that stupid song? When you shout insults before charging into a fight, don't you feel angrier? If you're religious, you know that praying when you are frightened makes you braver. In my opinion, this type of effect is what less cynical societies termed "magic". Every Viking thought he knew some magic. He had a little charm tied to the pommel of his sword. This kind of stuff is what in RQ terms we call battle magic.
Most of the RQ battle magic effects are really no more than an adrenaline rush. Fanaticism, Healing 1, Demoralize; all can be explained away by simple tricks and focusing of the mind and emotions. Now, obviously all the battle magic can't be explained this way (Healing 6 and Disrupt are hard to see as an adrenaline rush), but they are only different in quantity, not quality.
RQ battle magic is simply a more impressive version of what passes for magic on Earth, though now it is often debased by being termed
"psyching out" or "psyching up". Don't get me wrong. I'm no follower of Isaac Bonewitz, but whatever the effect is that "primitive" man called Magic, no matter how obvious the process might be to us, I still think can conveniently be called Magic.
Stuff like the Pairing Stone, I believe is a more impressive use of "real world" magic. For example, I'm a Mormon, and we can either be married in one of the fancy Mormon temples, or we can be married like anyone else. As it happens, Mormon temple marriages experience divorce at about 1/10 the normal American rate. Now I don't think that Mormons are any easier to live with than other folks, but the temple marriage ceremony IS touching and impressive, and I feel that the psychological roots from that experience are long-lasting. The "Pairing Stone effect" may simply be something similar.
Wow! I just read an article in Science News to bolster my theory. Researchers studying traditional Chinese families (in California) discovered that people born in a "fire" year fare badly when afflicted by heart disease. Birth in an "earth" year is bad for you if you have diabetes, ulcers, or cancer. "Metal" years are bad for lung disease. "Chinese with astrologically undesirable illnesses died 1-5 years earlier than Chinese suffering from the same diseases in the absence of an ill-fated birth year." These effects were drastically lessened in non-traditional families, and were absent among Caucasians. Of course, this only shows the dark side of such beliefs, and I contend it is possible, even likely, that if you got a disease that your birth year was "good" for, your chances of survival may well be increased.
Incidentally, what does "whinge" mean?
To all:
Look, I don't repudiate anything I ever wrote, whether in Different Worlds or elsewhere. I just refuse to defend it. (Weasel words, I know *sigh*)
johnjmedway sez:
> 1. What ever happened to Androgeus? ( aka Game construct so the
> 3-player game can have a Superhero for everyone )
Androgeus goes wandering around Glorantha. In one conversation I had with Greg, he contended that in the Hero Wars he (Androgeus) would only show up once in Dragon Pass. She spends a lot of time wandering around the Hero Plane, too. I've had my players meet some of Androgeus' children in my scenarios.
> 2. How the hell do the independants win the "Dousing the Flames"
> scenario? ( Historically the "weight of the Lunar Magic proved
> invincible", and YOW! I'd have to agree with that one, seeing how
> my collective Beastman-Shaker-Pony butts got kicked )
Beats me. I've never played that scenario since WBRM became Dragon Pass. If it's clearly a mismatch, you could try one of the two traditional wargamer fixes. {A} give the weaker side more stuff (Sir Ethilrist? The dragonewts? Cragspider?) or {B} play the scenario twice, once with you as the independents, then again with you as the Lunars, and see who won best as the Lunars.
> 3. What percentage of the total forces of the lunars do the units
> in Dragon Pass represent? What range in sizes is there between
> counters?
Unsure what the total percentage is. You could make a guess by noting that there is only one Char-Un counter in the Lunar cavalry, and realizing that the Char-Un are probably at least as numerous as any Praxian tribe. On the other hand, the Char-Un are way far up in the corner of the Lunar Empire, and perhaps proportionally fewer of them are stationed this far south. At my own rough guess, I would surmise that 1/5 of the army faces Sartar, 1/5 is in the Redlands, and the rest stationed around the Empire on police actions, to suppress rebellion, to watch lest Fronela's Ban end prematurely, etc. The counter's sizes are generally around 1000 guys (say 500-2000). Exotics are, of course, an exception. Even the Heroes represent more than one guy, tho. (Argrath being himself plus his cotery of 100-odd followers.) In personal conversations, it has been stated that Androgeus is probably "the closest to being a single person of any unit in the game".
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