From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 24 May 1994, part 4 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham) Subject: Same cults; East Ralios Message-ID: <199405240529.AA27802@radiomail.net> Date: 24 May 94 05:29:03 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4125 Sandy said >I believe that you'll find the same spells, >the same cult spirits, similar mythology, and generally similar cult >ranks everywhere that a cult appears. I think that's a less interesting way to play it. Certainly the basics are going to be there, but it seems unlikely that you're going to find Orlanth Rex spells in Esrolia, since Orlanth isn't the chief there. And even the mythology would have to be different, since Ernalda has other husbands there. A better example might be Lodril. Surely his Pamaltelan worship is very different from how he's treated in Peloria. I suspect he didn't make Agimori in Pelorian myth, and in Pamaltelan myth, the solar brothers might be unknown. And what about his worship in Teshnos? The situation would probably be a bit like travelling between modern technological nations with an electric razor. You know they will always have electricity, but the exact form it's available in is different (different voltage or sockets). If you insist on worshipping Orlanth exactly the way you do at home, you're not going to be able to shave. If you adapt slightly to local customs, you'll be able to plug right in. I do not advocate making things so different that it's unrecognizable -- that would be like finding that the wall outlets are what you plug your gas lanterns into. (This is to some extent what Trickster worship is like, however...) On a similar level, I've enjoyed making temples slightly different from each other -- in my campaigns one Minor Temple might have slightly different spells available than another. Martin Crim asked me >Would it be fair to say that your East Ralios Orlanthi are much >like Dark Age Irish, at least to the extent that we can fill in >some of the details with Pagan Shore? Yes, in my campaign they are in fact Orlanth-worshipping Irish Celts as cribbed from Pagan Shore. Normally, I'm opposed to just transplanting Earth cultures (actually, the Irish have to be modified to worship the Lightbringers and allow for women thanes), but I think it works in this case because the Dragon Pass Orlanthi are _not_ just Celts (they have more Icelandic and Saxon in them). The East Wilds is supposed to be much more barbaric than Dragon Pass, and I think my choice helps emphasize the difference. It wouldn't work if _all_ Orlanthi were just Celts in Glorantha. Using an analog culture also gives me a big head start: I know something about social structure, kinship, laws, and economy. Knowing this, I can adapt the Orlanth pantheon to fit the local situation. For example, the Irish didn't have markets, so Issaries isn't a god of trade. He's still a Lightbringer, but he's more important in East Ralios as the Talking God (a role he has in King of Sartar). The Irish have lawsuits, which is obviously a job for Lhankor Mhy as lawspeaker. Since herding is far more important than farming, Ralia is as much a cow goddess as she is a wheat goddess (I figure as land goddess her real job is fertility; I've also given her a secondary role as sovereignty goddess, which means she's [a] wife of Orlanth). ---------------------