Re: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 18 Jun 1994, part 1

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From: DevinC@aol.com
Date: Sun 19 Jun 1994 - 12:17:22 EEST


Devin Cutler here:

Nick writes:

"Yes, in general I do. Is reading history not fashionable in California, or
something? Why not look at the way they acted, wrote, thought: *then* tell me they're "no different from us". Instead of building castles in the air with your head in the sand. (Hmm... an odd mixture, but I like it)."

Gee Nick, no. I'm just an ingorant So Cal country bumpkin. It's a wonder I can read the RQ rules at all!

I find it rather bizarre that you ASSUME that I know nothing about ancient history. I am not saying that I do or don't, but I have never dealt with ancient hostory much on this list because I want to get away from the Glorantha as Ancient Earth shtick. Why not ask if I have read about Sumerians rather than assuming the worst?

I think you will find a lot of people who will support my contention that, while yes, there are differences in the trappings of ancient vs modern life (of course) that the "human predicament, and the way humans react to their environment and condition has not changed all that much. After all, we study history (at least in part) in order to gain insight into our own lives.

Joerg writes:

"Neither do I. If they tried to torture the priest within his own temple
to make him betray his deity, I think he'd DI out of it right into Humakt's Halls and take the secrets with him, reactivating all the temple defenses lots of Sever Spirit) to take the torturers with him.

Even a Chalana Arroy priestess would rather die by DI (healing her slain or fleeing companions while consuming the mundane part of her soul) than reveal the cult secrets to Chaos."

But the Priest will make DI about 18% of the time. The other 82% he will simply be tortured.

"About the same as the real world occurrences of apparent death, or people
fetched back after being clinically dead. The latter doesn't work either if you come way too late. Too late on Glorantha is about a week."

The occurances of "Resurrection" in modern life is rare compared the the occurance in Glorantha. Also, we in modern times have science to explain away this phenomenon. Gloranthans don't AND the pre-Renaissance man did not have these occurances of Resurrection since life-saving techniques were unavailable.

"A question of appeal to all the Gloranthan RuneQuesters out there: can
we make away with the concept of Blank Lands by now?"

I always liked the idea of out-of-the-way Blank Lands, so that someone who was running "official Glorantha" could have free-rain and not worry too much about conflict. nevertheless, you are right that with Multiplicity Glorantha reinign supreme, the need for Blank Lands is lessened.

I also felt that the turing of Balazar to a Blank Land was a Bad Thing. I really enjoyed Griffin Mountain and was sorry to see it de-Gloranthanized.

Sandy writes:

"That (or something like that) is what Ralzakark's band o'
Humakti broo are. They don't obey many of the Humakti rules, and wreak havoc on the cult sensibilities, but at least they got the power. Ditto for Ralzakark's Chalana Arroy healers, who pretty much only heal broos. "

Humakt doesn't care if Chaotics worship him. As far as not acting in a Humakti fashion, they are Illuminated, aren't they? Same for the Chalanna Arroy broo.

"Even the Brithini (even the Dwarfs!) know that the spirit retains its
personality for a week after death, at which time it breaks up into energy. Of course, theists claim that the 7-day time limit is simply how long it takes for the spirit to make it to Daka Fal's palace. "

Even knowing that there is a personality after death is one step farther than Terrans have.

Also, I believe the 7 day rule was dropped from RQ3.

Colin Watson writes:

"#1 Why is Excommunication left in the hands of Priests? Surely the God would

   know best who should be allowed in the cult; who should get spells etc.    Why is a priest-driven ritual required to cast someone out?"

In Cults of Prax, most of the Spirits of Reprisal seem to be able, on their own, to excommunicate apostates. I have always viewed the RQ3
"ecommunication" spell as an Alternate Earth spell set up because they do not
have Spirits of Reprisal

"#2 Why have initiates? Why not give *all* the right-thinking worshippers the

   same powers as priests and screw the rest? The cult would be lots more    effective at fulfilling the wishes of God.

Well?"

Because Gods cannot invasively read the minds of worshippers, but they CAN, over a period of time, by observing rituals, tell whether an initiate is truly devout. I imagine that before a Priest is ordained, that a Divination IS done to ask the god if he favours this candidate. The god, having divined something of the devoutness of the worshipper not only because he followed the procedures of the cult rituals, but also because he invested his heart, emotion, soul, etc. into them, on a metaphysical level, will eventually know how the worshipper feels.

Regards,

Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com

From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 20 Jun 1994, part 3 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
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