From: Nils Weinander (niwe@ppvku.ericsson.se)
Date: Tue 28 Jun 1994 - 21:47:28 EEST
Nils Weinander writing
Joerg presents some good thoughts on eastern philosophy in a reply to
Paul's "Sorcerer's toe":
>> OK, the phenomenon is widespread. Shamanic, theistic, and Western
>> cultures all have this. I am not sure about the Easterners; instead of
>> entering the Otherworld they may just gradually realize the unity of
>> things - this world may _be_ their Otherworld. Not sure, leave them
>> out for now.
{Yuk, I shouldn't do these double quotes}
>
>I think Kralori have the possiblity to enter the Dragon Path to
>follow their emperors from their waiting station in Vithela. This,
>however, wouldn't be the standard Eastern method/religion, since the
>Dragon worship seems to be one reaction to being split off Vithela
>during the Storm Age.
>
>The Vithelan way, as left in rudiments in all Eastern cultures, seems
>to include the acceptance of the Void as an elemental force. In RQ3 this
>has been "simulated" by the common use of "sorcery" in the East.
>
>Could anyone more familiar with "Eastern wisdom" try to flesh this out?
I am by no means familiar with eastern wisdom, but since I have been writing about the subject of eastern Glorantha despite my ignorance I can't resist expanding a bit on this.
Paul's suggestion that the easterners gradually realize the oneness of this world and the otherworld corresponds fine with the concept I have called the 'paradox of the void' in my Red Tiger stories: the revelation that nothingness and existence are one.
A game mechanicky representation of this could be a "skill" of 'Spiritual enlightenment' (not to be confused with illumination). The better you are at this skill, the closer you understand the oneness of the worlds, or in other words, the closer you grasp the nature of the Void.
My latest thoughts on eastern "sorcery" is that there are two forms of magic. The first is used as spirit magic or low sorcery as a personal magic to enhance your performance. But as the oneness is the important point here it doesn't seem very magical: it is merely a question of enhancing existing skills by concentrating on reaching harmony with the environment of the action performed. In game mechanics terms: if the character succeeds in a 'Spiritual enlightenment' roll, she has entered the right mindset for the task at hand. Then each magic point spent will give a +5% bonus to the skill success chance. The maximum number of magic points spendable is 'Spiritual enlightenment' / 10. The effect lasts as long as the character concentrates exclusively on the action thus boosted. Whenever she starts doing something else the 'trance' is ended. The Martial arts skill of Kralorela is such a skill based magic in my opinion (to enhance unarmed combat). There should probably be a limit on the number of skills a character may enhance this way, 'Spiritual enlightenment' / 10 for example.
The second form of sorcery is used as high sorcery, to cast spells. But instead of fixed spells as in the western sorcery tradition the mystic or whatever name is preferred knows magic areas, based on elements, powers or whatever. Any effect relating to a certain area, e.g. the element Water, may be created magically. This I think corresponds well to Godunya's 'divine magic' as described in GoG. Since there is no mundane skill involved it is more difficult to make the magic "happen", thus the mystic must roll for both 'Spiritual enlightenment' and a focus skill which substitutes the mundane skill used in the personal magic described above. I like to think of the focus skill as some kind of artistic performance, e.g. poetry, calligraphy or dance. Imagine the surprise of characters from central or western Genertela when they see a yellow-skinned man dancing up a fire, or healing a wound by reading a poem.
To reconnect to the Void/oneness concept I think a second effect of the mystic mode sorcery is to be able to pick up magic points from the world/otherworld you become one with. In game mechanic terms, the mystic should be able to do magic without using his own magic points, if he takes more time to meditate on the effect and the environment, perhaps a minute or an hour for each magic point. Now this is probably more controversial than the rest of this stuff, but it would certainly give eastern magic a flavour of its own.
This isn't really sufficiently fleshed out yet. Comments are appreciated.
Captain Button on rune spells:
> I'm going to throw out a different interpretation of runemagic:
>There is "really" only one event for each runespell, which
>the magic makes a mystical connection to. Thus Sever Spirit
>runespells connect the caster and target to Humakt's killing of
>Grandfather Mortal, the original, "real" Sever Spirit spell back in Godtime.
Now that's a fresh idea. I like it!
Captain Button again:
>I Fought We Won HQ?
>
> Is one of the very high level Heroquests to go and fight Wakboth
>(alone, yet along with everyone else) in I Fought We Won?
My character Kyra Dragonlady has done it. When the fight was over she found to her great dismay that she had been fighting along with a troll, yet under the circumstances couldn't slay the bastard afterwards (what, Kyra prejudiced against trolls? naah, they just ate her little brother...).
Neil on afterlife:
>It did bring forth one idea about what happens when someone dies.
>Shamans complete the transformation into their fetch and become
>a spirit entity, often met by other shamans. Initiates become one with
>their god, and if they are noteworthy enough (as Heros) they become
>added to their God's deeds, usually as a subcult. A very successful
>subcult may gain enough status on its own to promote the Hero to
>godhood, but this is rare indeed. Sorcerors, who gave up their
>connection to the 'otherworld' lose their souls as they cannot move
>into their other part. Of course, this can be considers as Solace,
>and thus be a 'Good Thing'.
Really neat, this idea of Paul's makes a lot of things fall in place. To reconnect to my rantings above on the eastern way: as an easterner grows ever more unified with the world and the otherworld he comes closer to release from the cycle of reincarnation. Thus when you have perfected your 'Spiritual enlighenment' and then die it is the final death whereafter your spirit becomes one with the universe.
Antti Heiskanen on his fabulous pictures:
>The pictures were uploaded in JPEG, because they doesn't look so good in
>256 colours (GIF).
I can testify that the pictures are stunning as 256-colour GIFs. I can only imagine how they look in full 24-bit colour...
/Nils W
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