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, Fri, 27 May 1994, part 6 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell) Subject: Russian Ralios and RoC Requirements Message-ID: <9405270511.AA24254@Sun.COM> Date: 27 May 94 20:10:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4205 Graeme Lindsell replying to Gary Newton (isaac@twics.com): Russian Ralios: My worry about the "wide open oppressed spaces" view of Ralios is I believe that such territories, with no natural boundaries to conquest, tend to form or be part of large empires. Like Russia, for example. Or Poland, that wonderful land where everyone goes to fight wars and devise new atrocities. Ralios on the other hand seems to be many small principalities over most of its domain, leading me to suspect that it's all hilly, forested, broken terrain, with easy transport only allowed by the rivers. More like the Holy Roman Empire perhaps, with the Emperor (Arkat) now vanished and everyone jockeying to take his place? Again, more a similarity than an exact parallel. >The Russians even now are not beyond displaying a certain amount of distrust >suspicion / irrational fear about the Great and Lawless East with its Hordes >of Invaders. The obvious place for this attitude is the Lunar Empire. Perhaps the Redlands and most eastern satrapies do tend to be more oppressive, where the Empire has to ensure political reliability? The Redlands may have been colonised more by runaway peasants than by deliberate action by the satraps. In Salfester, the areas near Seshnela may be the more freedom-loving, in reaction to the Rokari authoritarianism, while those near the Orlanthi would be more oppressive. (Did you suggest this or was it the other way round?) >The society of the Malkioni is obsessed (to varying degrees...) with the idea >of caste. One interesting thing to note is that tecnically only the men belong to different castes; all the women belong to one of their own. At least among the Brithini. Surprisingly, David Dunham responds to my question about RoC rune level skill requirements: >I welcome the change (I think), as it seemed that becoming an acolyte >was too easy, being mostly a matter of time >(50% skill is easy, 10 surplus POW is relatively easy) The 10 surplus depends (in RQ3) on what happens to cast rune magic by initiates. If spells learnt and cast counts towards the 10, fine. If it doesn't, things become harder. As for the 90% requirements, I was disturbed to see that things like Swords Attack are essential for a Storm Voice, but that skills I'd think more important, like 90% Cult Lore and 90% Ceremony are ignored. I like to think priests should know the teachings and myths of their god, and be able to worship him/her/it/them. -- Graeme Lindsell a.k.a lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra. "I was 17 miles from Greybridge before I was caught by the school leopard" Ripping Yarns - Tomkinson's Schooldays. ---------------------