Re: Urox/Storm Bull etc.

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 23:44:05 +1200


Thomas Baguley wrote:

> >Even the only person within spitting distance of officialdom
> >(probably when he is in the same office as Greg) has stated
> >that he believes the two are the same being.

>Yes, but that is what confuses/annoys me! Nick Brooke articulated it better
>than I did. There appears to be a mismatch between the separate
>Otherworlds/ missapplied worship rules and info about entities such as
>Urox/Storm Bull.

I haven't got the HW rules yet so I can't comment directly (I only have a beta draft which had no misapplied worship rules but twenty odd pages on runes with only two minor effects on game play).

I do believe, and the Glorantha book should point this out, that the different otherworlds are products of understanding _the_ otherworld.

         "The [Mystical Synthesis] School declared that all
         religions, save their own, could be classified as
         one of four modes of understanding the Supreme Being,
         the Invisible God.  [A short list of the four traditions
         follows plus a blanket statement that they have flaws].

         Their own God Learner philosophy, the School asserted,
         did not have any such flaws for its perspective was
         of the Center.  The God Learners acknowledged that
         certain other cults could obtain a similar perspective,
         but inferior and unbalanced because it didn't exploit
         all religious resources."

Thus far the God Learners. I think they were in the right direction, even if they made a complete hash of it.

FWIW I composed a whole (cut) list of snide insights at these other pantheons and added the provisio that their comments on rival Malkioni sects are hardly fair, the Valkarists got denounced as "idolatrous bedwetters". There was also insults and observations directed by pantheons against others which I don't think made it in.

>I'm not a rules literalist, but I'd like to reconcile my feeling that
>Urox/Storm Bull is one entity with the smallest strain on the rules. Jeff
>seems happy that it is just an exception. I'm not, because the exception
>(as it stands) seems arbitrary.

It's not arbitrary AFAIK as there are plenty of other examples that haven't been explicitly or implicitly mentioned in the rules. The Sun is one. The Red Goddess is worshipped both theistically and mystically.

 From what I understand, although divinities originated in only one perspective/planes, they could take on attributes of other planes if they have quested for it.

My speculation of how Storm Bull might live in both worlds follows:

Storm Bull started off in the Theistic world because he was one of Genert's friends and Genert is the Great Priest (just as Pamalt was the Great Shaman, Zzabur the Great Sorcerer). The Genertan Pantheon was killed during the Gods War and the surviving Praxians only managed to keep alive by communing with the shades of those killed. In other words they became animists.

Storm Bull became animist because he managed to fight against the Devil and live. So his worshippers are animists. But they can reach back beyond his fight with the Devil (or the Eternal Battle) to acquire theistic feats. I also think this is how Praxian spirit cults work and give feats without being misapplied worship.

In short the Praxian Pantheon is a special case.

I've probably said something wrong above so feel free to comment further, criticize etc if there's anything you are not happy with.

--Peter Metcalfe

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