From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com)
Date: Thu 12 May 1994 - 09:25:38 EEST
In a recent mailing, I mentioned that I didn't know anywhere in Glorantha that a classic Aldryami War was still raging. David Cake kindly reminded me of Dorastor, where the Poisonthorn and Hellwood elves have been fighting just such a war for many decades.
In addition, the Onlaks Elf/Human war is being fought just like an Aldryami War. The beleaguered humans can go for years without seeing a single elf, but must struggle against invasions of stone-breaking trees, poisoned lumber, etc.
Paul Snow, in an interesting discussion on the relative importance of
Runes, asks:
>Would it help players to focus on the nature of their
>Humakti character by deciding whether he is of the Truth Death
>affilition (Dirty Harry ?) or the Death Truth followers. etc
The current theory about Humakt is that he has _two_ death Runes, and a single truth Rune. The paired death Runes symbolize the fact that he is the Origin of that Rune.
When Greg and I labored over the Runes for GoG and RQ III, 'twas decided that the Runes came in several different "flavors" for different gods. To wit:
ORIGIN: A god can be the Origin of a Rune. This means that all other deities that share that Rune get it, by hook or crook, from the Origin. If the Origin god of a Rune was to somehow vanish from the universe, almost everything would irrevocably change. Probably this can't happen -- If Humakt were to be destroyed, probably some other god would take over the function, just as when Kargan Tor vanished, Humakt stepped in. There are two different ways you can be the Origin of a Rune. Either you can be the original source of it, or you can have inherited it somehow. For instance, Uleria was the original source of the Life Rune, and still is. Humakt is _not_ the original source of the Death Rune. If you are the original source of a Rune, then you have the Infinity Rune. If you are _not_ the source, but are the current Origin, then you have two of that Rune. Hence, Orlanth has two Air Runes, since he is the current Origin (but not
the original), whereas Flamal has a single Plant Rune, plus an Infinity Rune, since he is not only the current Origin, but always has been. Now, this "doubled" Rune imagery is obviously just asymbolic conceit, and could just as easily have been displayed the other way round. Glorantha has a long history of considering a doubled Rune to be equivalent to the Infinity Rune. Dragons, for instance, have two Beast Runes, but no Infinity Rune, yet everyone knows that Dragons display the powers of Infinity. In fact some people think that the infinity Rune was originally formed from a pair of Beast Runes put next to each other. Hence, all gods that are Origins of a Rune are Infinite.
PRIMARY: A Primary Rune is a Rune that is central to a particular god's existence. Generally speaking, Primary Runes are the Runes that are mentioned in CoP, GoG, CoT, and other cult manuscripts. Orlanth's Primary Runes, frex, are Mobility and Mastery.
SECONDARY: A Secondary Rune is a Rune that a god only kinda has. It is not so important to the god, but he still is considered to possess it. Sort of. For example, the Storm Bull has the Primary Runes of Storm, Death, and Beast. But he also has the Secondary Rune of Disorder. Secondary Runes have in the past not generally been listed in cult descriptions, except occasionally when the cult would mention that a god was "loosely associated" with a Rune. For instance, Mastakos has been given the Light Rune, but really this is a sort of honorary representation of the fact that he has a Secondary Fire Rune.
Paul Pofandt asks:
>What is required to join a sub cult?
It depends on the cult. Most cults have no membership requirements for their subcults. All you have to do is find a temple with the appropriate shrine built in. For instance, most Humakti hero cults are freely available to initiates. However, the Hiia Swordsman Humakti hero cult requires its members to take an oath that they will never use poison or venom. Most just take a geas to that effect.
>Is another POW sacrifice required (to join a subcult)?
This would be extremely rare. I can't think of a cult which does, off-hand.
>Is a member of a sub cult also a member of the parent cult?
Invariably.
Sandy
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