From: Paul Reilly (paul@phyast.pitt.edu)
Date: Mon 07 Jun 1993 - 23:35:51 EEST
>Something Oliver said aroused my interest. Since the Godlearners made
>up all these runes anyway, wouldn't any sorcery that used the Runes
>be akin to Godlearner heresy?
We keep having reality shifts. In RQ II the Runes were the very stuff
of the Universe. Darkness came first and gave rise to the other Elements,
(or Chaos came first and gave rise to Darkness) and the Power Runes had
devotees who all claimed that theirs was the First Rune.
Each cult had Runic associations, and these were important magically and
in Society. There were rules like "No adherents of a Death Rune cult may
enter the temple," etc.
In RQ III lots of information was cut on cults but the Runic associations
were important enough to keep. Most of the artwork uses Runes, including
those depicting Western sorcerors spellcasting. We are told in the
Player's Book: Genertela, by _Greg_Stafford_ and Sandy Petersen, that
Western sorcerors love to use the standard Gloranthan Runes. Also,
cults way down into Pamaltela and ancient non-human cults like Subere
or Flamal have runes. These deities are even Rune Owners. And according
to the Westerners, the False Gods are sorcerors who got bound up in
particular runes.
Now Runes are (apparently according to Greg again) not much in use
by Western Sorcerors, and were a God Learner innovation. What happened
to the overthrow of God Learner philosophy and beliefs if the cults use
the Runes? If they don't, shouldn't practically all RQ Sources get rewritten?
While we're at it, let's change the name of the game, since _Rune_ Quest
is no longer appropriate. Quest is wrong too, quests don't feature too
much in the published sources for the game.
And should we delete stuff like the Law Rune being on the coat of arms
for the Wizards of Seshnela?
Anyway, I liked Runes. I thought of them as the True Names of the great
powers of the universe. Is this an example of Minarian (sp?) Memory Removal?
- Paul
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