Ripping off the Gods of Gullibility

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From: Official Heat Sink (SYS_RSH%PV0A@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com)
Date: Fri 17 Jun 1994 - 06:28:24 EEST


Colin Watson:
>IMO one who knows the appropriate rituals (and how to perform them)
>to get Axe Trance (reusably) effectively *becomes* a priestess of
>Babeester Gor regardless of how they reached that status or how they
>intend to use it.

A good point, but I don't entirely buy into the "regardless" part. I'll grant perhaps that their intentions can be masked, but I think it makes a difference as to how they reached "priest" status. After all, part of the point of sacking power to the god (Joerg and Alex, STAY OUT OF THIS! <grin>) is to create a link to the god through which magic flows. No sacrifice, to way to scarf up magic. I think you must be initiated at some point to pull this off. (One could argue that by learning the ritual, one sacks POW, but that's stretching it....)

>Gods get their primary knowledge of you through your worship and
>prayers.
...
>Gods get secondary knowledge about you from what other worshippers
>tell of you in their prayers.
>This mass of information is available to the priests of the cult
>should they wish to cast a Divination about you.

True, but... :) It seems obvious that the gods know about things in mundane Glorantha that no worshipper really knows. I admit that this "tertiary" knowledge is pretty hazy most of the time, but I think that whilst the gods might be limited in their actions (because of the Compromise), they can still fiddle with the remote control and WATCH things. Ergo, the gods know more about you than you think. The primary and secondary knowledge might have more weight, but I still think they'd know what else you'd been doing, even in secret.

>My impression is that the God will be "displeased" if you are lax in
>your worship or if you (stupidly) blaspheme whilst praying or such.
>This amounts to "botching-up the ritual". In such cases you will
>have trouble getting a response out of your God and may even suffer
>some sort of retribution.

True.

>I never said it would be easy, but it's feasible. No?

Feasible, yes. I just have trouble accepting that it is so. :) I just like my gods to be, well, godly.

--Scott

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