> Well, that's not really an option, Gods ARE magic, they have no
> mundane abilities. They used their abilities in the same way a human
> Hero uses his HeroQuested abilities - magic innate to them, not
> learned & 'borrowed' from someone else.
But they weren't worshipping anyone. I can't see the problem with worshippers using the abilities they get through worshipping. To me it's kinds the point, really.
> > It would also depend on exactly what the god teaches. For example,
> a
> > Humakti needs a weapon abiilty to get the most out of the
> affinities. And
> > the cult teaches these Physical skills. Yet Issaries doesn't teach
> > bargain, so I wonder.
>
> But to worship Issaries you should be a Merchant or Trader, and those
> professions DO teach it. The game tries not to duplicate abilities,
> and sometimes things get mixed up (look at the problems over the
> Grazer's skills).
BUt you don't *have* (Issaries requirements : none). It's up to the individual worshipper. Do I learn the skill? The ability? Both? And it's up to the god (ie narrator) to decide whether the choice is a good one. Actually, I don't think the god would care very much, as long as you aremaking your sacrifices and acting in the (to be) prescribed manner.
Glorantha is so inherently magical that trying to draw lines between magical and mundane for anything other than rules convenience is, to me, counter-productive. Seeing is magical. You are taking the light given by the sun (whichever god happens to be the sun for your culture) into your eyes. It is a magical act. Breathing is magical. You are taking Orlanth into yourself. There's a quick question - Elmal is the sun for Heortlings, but who's the air for Yelm worshippers? I doubt they see themselves ingesting Orlanth every moment of their lives.
If that's too much for you, then any skill which produces an effect above the range of 'normal' possibility is magical. The same affects are usually possible in each of the four magic systems. So what's wrong with an ability doing exactly the same thing? The difference is not what it can do, but where the origin lies.
Michael
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