From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com)
Date: Tue 15 Nov 1994 - 07:42:05 EET
Colin: I agree with your theory that Power and Intellect spirits are
not just tools of abusive players, but have some sort of natural
function and/or reason for existence.
I'm currently sticking by my theory that Intellect spirits are the great Spell Recyclers of Glorantha, an essential part of moving knowledge around.
Power spirits aren't quite so obvious. Perhaps they are just primitive INT-less entities, who lack a sense of self, and hence are subject to having their MPs used by others. A more highly evolved spirit, such as a ghost, cannot donate its MPs to another, because it _has_ self-awareness. Perhaps the special cult spirits that we know are able to donate their MPs have some kind of spiritual organ that permits this unusual activity?
Nick Brooke:
>The God Learners' "RuneQuest Sight" was just a particularly
>virulent, but still subjective, way of viewing the world. (OK, it's
>IMO, but can anyone prove me wrong inside Glorantha?).
I can't prove you wrong (seeing as I think you're right), but there is more to the RuneQuest Sight than just another world-view -- the distinguishing feature of the RuneQuest Sight is that it KNEW that it was subjective, and strove to hold multiple subjective viewpoints simultaneously in a (only partially successful) effort to be objective. Modern Orlanthi/Dara Happans/Doraddi etc. are clueless that there is another way of looking at the world than their own, manifestly correct, viewpoint.
In essence, I believe that the God Learners were like those irritating modern-day scholars who proclaim that all cultures have a subjective world-view, including our own (a manifest truth), but then go on to proclaim that therefore all cultures are equally viable and worthy of respect, and make their people equally happy (a manifest untruth).
>Some people want the diversity to be reflected in more
>tangible/mundane ways, distinguishing between Troll spirits and Wolf
>spirits and Flower spirits rather than between game constructs with
>different stats.
Unless there's something different about a troll spirit as opposed to a flower spirit besides its name and appearance, then the result will be that we will have game constructs with identical stats, surely not preferable to the current situation?
Agreed: we need a more interesting and varied spirit fauna.
Agreed: RQ III did not go far enough in that direction (though you have to admit it was lightyears beyond RQ I's vanilla all-identical spooks).
Just because RQ III needs even more spirits, and details on what it DOES have (didn't you like my suggestion that Intellect spirits are spell-recyclers?), doesn't mean that we need to dump what has been accomplished at such great loss of life.
I second Harald Smith's vote for Peter M's being appointed Flesh Man of the daily.
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