To: RuneQuest-Digest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
Subject: RuneQuest Digest Volume 9, no 3
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Contents:
Charles Gregory Fried - Blue Moon Cult (pre-GoG variation)
Editorial:
This was too large for a Daily.
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From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: Blue Moon (heretical)
Message-ID:
Date: 10 Sep 93 10:00:06 GMT
Well,
since I'm going all out tonight, here is the write-up of the Blue Moon I
promised Nick. I wrote it a good many years ago, before I knew squat about
Lunar religion, and so it bears only (perhaps interestingly) accidental
relation to the cult of Annila.
Since it is heretical, you will detect other non-standard stuff. I think of
white-light (the Light of stars and the Sun) as alien to Glorantha (though
later, heros ascend to Sky as Stars). Stars preceed Moon preceeds Sun. I
also think that it was the Blue Moon's sister, the White Moon, who led the
LightBringer's quest to hell. Orlanth just tagged along for muscle. The
fiery YELLOW (not white) orb that rose in the Dawning was Yalem, the Sunsson
Moonsson. The White Moon stayed behind with her lover the Sun in Hell, where
he damn well belongs. But this is off point!
SELAKUAN
The Blue Moon, Goddess of the Dreamtime and Fortune-Tellers
(copyright, Gregory Fried)
I. MYTHOS AND HISTORY
A. BEFORE TIME
When the first stars appeared and glinted in the Sky, like the first
glimmerings of a thought or an idea, Glorantha, the the cosmic womb,
became uneasy. The stars wandered and kept no pattern in the black
vault of heaven, and while they smiled with beauty and promise, still
Glorantha felt a forboding. For the stars came not from her.
Glorantha heeded these portents. In her wisdom, imbued with a prophesy
of Light, her daughter Ga conceived a child under the beams of the stars,
reflecting what was to be. The child was mighty, and dwelt for a long time
within the Earth, learning secrets of the great mother and treading the edges
of Chaos. There she discovered the power of Death, and with it, she was born
from the Sea. With the powers of Earth and Sea, Ga sent this child to the
dome of the Sky, endowed with Light to look over the World and to rule it.
This child was the Moon, Selakuan, a poem woven from all the elements, and
with her unearthly blue light she did indeed rule. But she ruled with
justice; with a dancing rhythm she travelled the vault of Sky, turning
her dark side to the Earth whenever her brilliance frightened its
inhabitants. Indeed, her Light did not offend the elder races, who lived
untroubled on the surface. She brought a fey Color to the lands. From Earth
and Sea, she brought rain and plant (mushroom, mold, and fern), and to
balance these gifts, she wielded the power of Death to complete the cycle
of life. But in Selakuan's justice, Death was always renewal and return,
not the cruel event we know today.
So in her dancing rhythm, Selakuan, became Mistress of the Dreamtime. With
her cyclical movements, it is even said, the Dreamtime itself was born.
For the time we know, the Nowtime, had not yet had his birth, and Selakuan
wove the web of the Dreamtime with her justice and danced upon it.
But Death introduced a turbulence of its own into the World, and upon that
turbulence Storm rode into the cosmos, sired of Earth and Sky. Umath thrust
apart Earth and Sea from the Sky and placed Air between them. Selakuan
gasped as she was torn from her mothers in this act of violent rebellion,
and Death slipped from her hands. Eurmal, the god who cares only for his
own mischief, found Death, and, in his injustice, gave it to Storm. This
changed Death's nature forever: from then on, it was a cruel, sharp Sword.
Umath also usurped the power of rain, and other prerogatives, and so took his
turn at ruling the World.
When the Sun came, Selakuan's power was further diminished. The Sun's intense
white light overwhelmed the strength of the Blue Moon, whose gentle radiance
had offended no one.
Shunning violence, her web of justice shattered, Selakuan withdrew from the
affairs of the cosmos.
B. SINCE TIME BEGAN
With the birth of the Sunsson at the Dawning, and so of the Nowtime, the
Blue Moon was banished from the reconstructed cosmos. Her blue Light was
diffused across the day-time Sky as a sign of her capitulation to the great
cosmic compromise of the gods, and her orb was taken from her. Yet the other
deities cannot entirely exist without a link to the Mistress of Dreams, so
she reappears every year in the Sacred Time, and her color is there to
observe for all those who can see the dome of Sky.
Her worshipers believe that finally the Nowtime will end and that the
reign of the Blue Moon will be restored, and that then she will always
be full. Until that time, they revere Selakuan's infinite hidden presence
-- the hidden presence of dream.
Some say that Arachne Solara, the SunSpider, is the Nowtime twin and
reflection of Selakuan, the Blue Moon, but this has not been confirmed by
even the boldest of heroquesters.
C. LIFE AFTER DEATH
The devotees of Selakuan know they will be drawn beyond the Nowtime to their
goddess, there to await the end of time.
D. RUNIC ASSOCIATIONS
Selakuan is associated with the Runes of Moon, Infinity/Time, and Fate.
These are great powers, but because an active reintroduction of Dreamtime
would be hostile to the new ordering of the cosmos, the other divinities
severely monitor the banishment of the goddess.
II. NATURE OF THE CULT
A. REASON FOR CONTINUED EXISTENCE
The Dreamtime is beyond the World now. But without some vestigial connection
to Selakuan, Myth itself would die. Mortal and deity could no longer
interact. Cults would become meaningless. Heroes would vanish. The cosmos
still needs the Blue Moon -- only, she may not show her face. But all of us
return to her every night, when we enter the empire of dreams, and during the
day, the vestigial presence of the goddess is manifest in the blue of the Sky.
There are those who actively seek the extinction of the the Blue Moon. They
have their reasons.
Of course, there are others who passionately work for her restoration, quietly
seeking out the remnants of the dream-threads in the memories of mortals who
must sleep every night. But most of her present worshipers are
fortune-tellers who subsist on the margins of society.
Selakuan looks on upon all this and waits in patience.
B. SOCIAL/POLITICAL POSITION AND POWER
Though the followers of the Blue Moon are tolerated, this is generally only
because their goddess is needed for certain arcane rituals, and because they
themselves are unobtrusive and marginal.
C. PARTICULAR LIKES AND DISLIKES
The Blue Moon is compassionate and gentle. Nevertheless, some of her
followers bear little love for Storm or Sun cults, and this is considered
justified.
The cult loves and respects graceful dance, music, poetry and the craft of
weaving.
Cultists may not be Resurrected, at least until the return of the reign of
the goddess.
Spiders especially, as well as snakes, are sacred to Selakuan, and are often
the choice for bound and allied spirits.
The cult is not ideologically pacifist, but encourages the shunning of
violence.
The cult is not obliged to oppose Chaos, except if the Chaos in question
threatens outrage or annihilation to the cosmos and its inhabitants. This
stipulation is ground for broad conflict in interpretation, and is one of
the chief causes of suspicion of the cult.
III. ORGANIZATION
Cult organization is very loose. Each temple, which generally serves a large
area, has a single high priestess, elected for life by the other priestesses.
Her one important power is that of veto against any application for
initiation. Otherwise, she is first among equals.
Holy days fall on Godsday, seasonally in Fate (if you don't use a 10 week
calendar, then Fertility) Week, and the High Holy Festival falls on the
Sacred Time.
IV. LAY MEMBERSHIP
Anyone having their fortune read by a Blue Moon cultist is a lay member for
that time and gives up a point of temporary POW.
V. INITIATE MEMBERSHIP
Only those with keen powers of spiritual perception, or those thought to be
graced in some way by the goddess will be offered the chance to be initiates.
The test is abstracted as (POW + INT/2%) + (Analyze Character and Fortune
Telling skills/2%). Any being may be considered for initiation (as in the
cult of Chalana Arroy), so long as they obey the Blue Moon's tenets: to
refrain from violence; to protect those in one's charge; to seek out and
preserve the fabric of the cosmic dream-web; to protect the world from
dissolution; to seek no dominion over others until the return of the goddess
to her rightful place as Mistress of Dreamtime. These tenets effectively
keep out most Chaos beings.
Above all, the examiner must be convinced that the petitioner truly understands
what it means that, though the Blue Moon is banished, she still retains a
hidden presence. This insight is spiritual, and the test of it can be
role-played in substitution of the abstracted test outlined above.
The spirit magic spell Sleep is available to cultists (see the Chalana Arroy
spirit spell), and is considered a cult secret not to be shared with
outsiders; those slept are protected by the cult.
Special Cult skills:
Analyze Character. Knowledge skill, 5% base. This is a skill that allows
an observer to read the mood and attitude of a person whom they have some
chance to study. This is not mind reading, but rather a sort of honed
emotional intuition. Regular success gives a sense of the target's present
surface mood; special success give a broader sense of the target's
disposition that carries this mood; and critical success gives insight
into an aspect of the target's psychology. A fumble will give an erroneous
reading. This skill is the counter-skill to Act. It is very helpful when
performing Fortune Telling.
Fortune Telling. Communications skill, 5% base. As a skill, fortune telling
is not an occult, magical art, but a way of communicating with someone --
something like our psychoanalysis. The exact method (tarot, tea leaves, etc
-- the cult prefers its own tarot deck and the analysis of dreams) should be
judged by context by the GM, but the teller must be able to communicate with
the person being read. The person seeking a reading asks a question of the
teller, and she speaks with and puts questions to him as she reads the
signs. Her Analyze Character skill is useful here. With success in the
Telling skill, the teller can inform the inquirer of a psychological (not
a prophetic) truth about himself (use the Critical and Special guidelines
from Analyze Character), and where this truth has come from in his past and
where it is likely to take him (depending upon how open he has been with her
-- although the best Tellers are very good at gleaning the slightest hints of
a person's motivations, etc). Combined with divine magics of the Blue
Moon, however, this skill can have truly prophetic powers. This skill
works best when role-played out fully.
VII. RUNE PRIESTESSES
A. GENERAL STATEMENT
Most representatives of the goddess at this level are female, though males
can attain this status, too. Acceptance requires 90% in Orate, Analyze
Character and Fortune Telling, plus a POW x 1% roll, which may only be
attempted once every Sacred Time (the goddess is both choosy and difficult
to reach).
E. RUNE SPELL COMPATIBILITY
Though banished, Selakuan is not broken. Some true devotees may still reach
her, though she has lost many of her powers over Life and Death. She can
summon small Lunes, and Earth and Water elementals. She grants worshipers
access to the common divine spells, and the following special magics:
F. CULT SPECIAL RUNE SPELLS
The Blue Moon is still the Mistress of the Dreamtime, and she has access
to the Runes of Time and Fate. Her priestesses can draw on her to bend
the laws of the Nowtime, but the goddess's power is not great enough to
allow travel to the past or future of the linear flow of the Nowtime.
That would be too much like the Dreamtime for the other divinities to
tolerate. Blue Moon cultists may never spell-trade with the divine magic
of their goddess.
BlueLight: 1 point, temporal, ranged, stackable. This spell causes a globe
of deep blue light to come into existence, with a diameter of 5 feet/2 meters
per point stacked. Any being in this light who is overcome by the priestess'
POW will suddenly be assaulted by an intense memory of dream they have had,
to the point of having it impinge on their present reality. The effect of
this spell depends on the attitude of those overcome to the caster. Those
friendly to the caster will recall the mood of a pleasant or encouraging
dream: depending on circumstances, allow this to affect their skill rolls
a little (say, + 2% per point), or give them an additional resistance roll
against a hostile spell in effect, such as Demoralize. Enemies will be
overcome by a memory of a nightmare: treat this as an attack by the Madness
divine spell. Those neutral to the caster will be affected as if under the
City Harmony spell of the Pavis cult, as they pause in wonder at their
day-dream. This spell will add intensity to the experiences of those
affected by Deepsleep and Dreamvision spells, in a manner best interpreted
by the GM in context.
Presentiment: 1 point spell. Duration instant. Range n/a. Non-stackable.
This spell will tell the caster if the direct result of a relatively minor
act will bode well or ill for the agent in the immediate future. Thus, one
could employ it before opening a mysterious door, but not as a means to
foretell the outcome of a battle. This presentiment is a feeling, not a
statement of facts.
Deepsleep: 1 point, stackable. This spell overcomes its targets with a very
profound sleep, during which the sleeper may have revelatory dreams.
Sleepers feel no pain and do not sense the outside world; they have only a
POWx1% of waking after a vigorous shaking or serious wound. Blue Moon
cultists are bound to protect the bodies of those in Deepsleep.
Dreamvision: 2 points, special. This spell must be cast on someone overcome
by Deepsleep. This spell allows the caster to impose a narrative on the
target's dream. This narrative does not necessarily unfold as the caster
would intend or predict; she may only set up the basic elements. Such a
dream will have a subtle and lingering effect on its target, and if the
dream is told to a Blue Moon cultist, she will have a better chance of
interpreting it (skill x 1.5).
Fortune-Telling: 1 point spell, stackable. The caster must combine this spell
with the successful use of a fortune-telling skill. She will then learn her
INT/3 facts about the subject's past. These facts will be general (age, area
of birth, class of profession, etc.), but for each one, there is a POW x 1%
chance that the fortune teller will have sharp and true insight about
something important. The fortune-telling will also give a sense of general
trends for the subject's future, based on the patterns of the past. INT/3
such trends can be identified. But there is a POW x 1% chance for each true
insight (see just above) that the caster will glimpse an aspect of the
subject's true Fate as well. This is a Fate based spell, not a Time-Rune
spell.
Vision: 3 point spell. This spell gives caster a vision of a specific period
of the past. See the Reconstruction divine spell of the Lhankor Mhy cult for
specifics.
Timebend: 3 point spell, temporal, caster only. This spell gives the caster
fleeting visions of the very near future (within twelve seconds). Hence it
functions as a continuous Presentiment spell. In addition, the caster may
use it to predict the immediate actions of another being. To do this, she
must overcome the target's POW in any given round. In game terms, this means
the person whose actions are being predicted must state his or her intentions
for the next 12 seconds (a round), which cannot then be altered. This allows
the caster's character to act and respond as if she had the power of
immediate foresight which this spell confers. What his means must be
creatively judged by the GM in context, but in combat, it should grant a
bonus on SR and attack and defense ( skills x ~1.25), plus the advantage of
knowing what the opponent hopes to accomplish that round if she overcomes him.
Dreamgate: 3 point spell, special. This spell allows the recipient to pass
from the Nowtime to the Dreamtime. It may be employed, though, only by
heroquesters who have the permission of their gods to enter into the realm
of Myth to reforge a tiny piece of reality. Selakuan's priestesses must
teach this spell, on a one use basis, to those who ask and who have the grace
of their deity. The priestess may cast Divination to learn absolutely
if the subject is a true hero of the god, and cannot deny a hero's
request. She must first place the quester into a Deepsleep. The priestess
may charge the hero to perform a deed for her as well on the quest.
This is but one way to enter the Myth-time, although all other methods
do imply the at least tacit acknowledgement of the goddess' dominion
over her dream-realm.
VIII. SUBSERVIENT CULTS
A. SPIRIT OF REPRISAL
FURIES - Horrific ghostly-blue spirits, the Furies attack apostates of
the cult with a POW of 3d6 + 6. In addition, they will eventually attack
any intelligent being who knowingly and wantonly murders a cultist of
Selakuan. This is known as the Curse of the Blue Moon, and protects the
cultists from persecution.
IX. ASSOCIATED CULTS
A. BLUE SKY
Selakuan receives this spell from the blue sky dome, usable only when day-time
Sky is visible:
Skysanctuary: 3 points. When this spell is cast, the cultist disintegrates
in a bloom of blue light which is drawn up into the blue sky above. The
cultist returns to the spot she left when the spell expires, or before then
if she wishes. From the Sky above, the caster can view an area encompassing
the field of vision she held before her ascent. If the caster so chooses,
she may rematerialize in her home temple, but this makes the spell one-use.
B. Others.....? Chalana Arroy (Comfort Song and Restore INT)? Ga (Gnomes)?
Kyger Litor(Darksee)? Triolina (Undines)? Gorgoma (Second Mouth)? Arachne
Solara?
X. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
A. Fortune Telling
There are many methods of telling fortunes, and some are more useful in given
circumstances than others. The cult of the Selakuan is most famous, though,
for its Blue Moon Tarot "deck," which consists of images of all the Runes
which constitute the cosmos. Other noted methods include the analysis of
dreams and the analysis of fabrics woven on sacred looms.
B. Dragons and Dragonkind
The cult tends to respect the dragonkind, but holds it wise to leave them
to their own special way of Dream, believing that some time, their way
and the way of the Blue Moon will converge. It is prophesized that this
will only happen at the end of Time.