From: alex (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 04 Jul 1994 - 13:46:13 EEST
Joerg:
> No curse proposal, but a mechanic proposal: As long as a powerful
> religious curse is held in effect, it cannot be regained.
This mechanic would be better suited to long-lived temporal spell, than ones intended to be permanent (as curses generally are). One could simply make them be one-use, or require POW when cast.
> Storm Bull's curse might be a similar Demoralize in the face of chaos.
Definitely not: this would be cutting off his magically-ecological nose to spite his insufficiently devout face. I agree broadly with the "beneficial deities only" rule of thumb: in these cases, it makes sense for the curse to be a loss of the benefit. (One could argue protection from, or fortitude against, chaos was SB's "benefit", I suppose.)
Sandy:
> Another, even likelier, interpretation is that the beneficial
> deities rely on other, specialized "vengeance" deities to protect
> them. Thus, we have Gorgorma, Maran Gor, Babeester Gor -- all of whom
> make sense only if there is a larger, benign cult for them to draw
> their strength from and to protect.
BG, yeah, but less so MG or Gorgy. Much MG worship may be propiatory, for one thing. Gorgorma's vengance function doesn't necessarily require a malign earth cult to protect, that's just where the candidates "happen" to come from.
> Various
> folks compete for the "honor" of being the Emperor, and once they
> rise to the status, the Emperor Goes On. However, the Emperor's soul
> (or something) is apparently in control of the new guy, whose spirit
> either goes to Glamour, or sticks around to advise the Emperor (not
> clear which).
This sound familiar to anyone? Say, MoLaD playtesters? Clear evidence for the Cyclic Nature of Greg, I think.
> Pol Joni: I think these are primarily Orlanth & co. There is no doubt
> some Eiritha, but these guys are certainly no longer Waha worshipers.
> Probably retain plenty of shamanism.
Given the Waha is a largely shamanistic religion, I see no reason why they'd all have to apostasise or convert. Obviously Waha doesn't have the "chief" or "covanant" roles in this tribe, but that needn't make him an undeity. Butchery is still an obvious niche, for example.
> >> Compare the other Praxian outlaw groups: Amazons (Yelorna),
> >>Gagarthi, and Cannibal Cult.
> >But they're not an outlaw group,\
> But they are, really.
KoS, p132: "[...] and they became, in every way, one of the many bickering tribes of the plains".
> On the other hand, probably no man is an "outlaw" in the
> Orlanthi sense to the Praxians. In the Wastes, where times are tough,
> who can tell the difference between a band of raiding Sable Riders
> and a band of marauding Gagarthi? The effects are the same.
This is fair point, given the general lack of "law" to be "out" of in Prax. But the Pol Joni are certainly a different case from the Gagarthi, if only for their de facto possession of the Marches. Also, not everyone in the PJs will actually have been cast out of a "convential" tribe; many will be Nth generation outlaws, or Orlanthi. (This may be true to a lesser degree of the Gagarthi, p'haps, though I doubt they're big on namby-pamby stuff little raising little Gagartllets.)
> ("Just one step above the Morocanth!" as the saying goes).
Given that the Morocanth certainly aren't outlaws, the defence rests.
> > Is one of the very high level Heroquests to go and fight Wakboth
> >(alone, yet along with everyone else) in I Fought We Won?
>
> This is more probably the _end_ of a whole lot of other
> heroquests. The grand finale of the Hill of Gold Yelmalio/Elmal
> heroquest, for instance, closes with him fighting off hordes of chaos
> before he can greet the Dawn. I think this is probably the case with
> many if not most Greater Darkness quests.
Or at least the "survival"-themed ones, I suppose. I concur with Sandy's implicit disagreement with <oops, name deleted>'s suggestion that this is an "advanced" quest: I think that as a rule, any quest may be done in a "shallow" way, and so on progressively. Though on the other hand, I there is a limit to how "deeply" you can do some quest: Garreth Sharpsword need hardly apply to carry out "advanced" version of Snorri whatsisname's quest.
Alex.
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