> Please can someone(s) tell me exactly who can perform resurrections?
> From the discussions so far my house rules is forming something like:
> CULT WHO
> Chalana Arroy Non cult enemies and non chaos
> Yelm Yelm Pantheon cultists
> Lhankor Mhy Non cult enemies and non chaos
> Irrippi Ontor Lunars and allied cults
> Teelo Norri Non cult enemies
> Xiola Umbar Trolls
> Aldrya Elves (+ rarely human elf-friends)
> Daka Fal Nomads, Waha and Storm Bull cultists
For Yelm, the "fun" twist that's been suggested here is to allow Yelm cultists to resurrect themselves, *only*, which helps ram home the selfishness of the Yelm Cult. (In one of our freeform games, a Yanafal Tarnils cultist got a similar power, but I think this was more likely to be either Divine Intervention, a HeroQuest power, or just "showing off," rather than a normal cult ability).
Why do Lhankor Mhy and Irrippi Ontor, two Knowledge deities without noteworthy Healing associations, get this power at all (in your game)? If it's just because of their Lightbringer/Seven Mothers connections, that's surely as applicable to any of their companions (and likely mediated by the Healer priestess in both cases, Chalana Arroy or Queen Deezola).
I'd suggest that Deezola, a Healing Goddess, is far more likely to offer Resurrection than Teelo Norri, a notoriously ineffectual "deity".
Daka Fal resurrection would be for "relatives", not "nomads". After all, the whole cult premise is that ancestral relationships are more important than anything else.
Xiola Umbar does *not* have the Resurrection rune spell in "orthodox" Glorantha. Nothing to stop her from using D.I. to achieve the same end, though.
Now, apart from the issues listed above, you're listing all Resurrection providers as providing this service, by preference, to co-religionists (or same-species, in the case of racial cults). And as this is true of *any* rune spell casting, I don't see that making a separate table of "Resurrection Spell Availability" is worth-while. More important, surely, is to know whether Resurrection is available *at all* in your game, and how likely your characters are to qualify for it. Blurring the issue (by giving the spell to cults that wouldn't normally get it, but then never allowing them to cast it anyway) isn't as useful an approach.
> I'm also toying with the idea that unless you are an Initiate at
> least there is no chance of resurrection
I disagree. Reason: it's always handy to say that the local Healer has just cast her last Resurrection to save a young child -- or wants to keep it in reserve in case a similar tragedy happens -- letting the players see that they inhabit a world whose magical ecology isn't designed to keep adventurers alive. Saying that nobody who isn't an Initiate can be resurrected snips out this subset of "more deserving cases" for no real gain. After all, anyone who is a PC but isn't an Initiate is unlikely to be a prime candidate for resurrection by *anyone*. (Plus, the afterlife of the uninitiated is presumably dire enough to make it worth avoiding by any means possible).
> Also I'm heretically allowing Humaktis to be resurrected by DI only,
> ie at point of death, basically big H says "Go back your work is not
> yet done" or some such, cos the body is still warm and the blood
> still coursing so they aren't really dead
Cop-out. Traditionally (in our old RQ2 games) the Humakti equivalent of a "please Resurrect me" D.I. call was a "please parry that blow that would otherwise have killed me." The Humakti unresurrectability then applies to any D.I. attempts by other player characters. But moment-of-death D.I. is always a tricky case anyway, worthy of house rules. I suggest that weakening the "no resurrection" rule isn't worth it: better to come up with an alternative.
> I seem to recall speculations about Lunar hoplites being brought back
> by the dozen in between battles.
Not speculation: fact. It says so on *every* recruiting poster, after all!
Truth: the Lunars gladly tell army recruits that Resurrection rituals and other mondo powerful healing spells will be made available as and when necessary, as resources permit. And resources usually permit, for generalss with good political connections, heroic individuals, friends of the healers, etc.; they seldom do for humble recruits, auxiliaries, provincial levies, and the politically inconvenient. [1]
If you do join the army, *try* not to die.
NB: rumours of magicians from the Lunar College experimenting with the Gift of Chaos to heal soldiers' wounds are *entirely* unfounded.
As is that reliable urban myth -- "I was wounded in Sartar, and the priestess cast Regrow Limb to save my life. Trouble is, it was a head injury!" (A nice way of explaining that Chaos Feature, though...)
Nick
:::: web: <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke>
[1] In the post-game debriefing session after a miniatures battle at RQ-Con Chicago, the Lunar Examiners decreed that the commanding officer, who had somehow been Resurrected after a display of inexcusable incompetence, had retrospectively died on the battlefield.
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