> And, of course, the god is not likely to be interested in helping
unless the
> message is directly relevant to the god. Gods are not generally
inclined to
> play message-boy for a worshipper's convenience. But even if the
god's
> inclined to help, it's not the sort of thing they're good at. They
might
> well garble the message, or pass it to the wrong person, or give
it to a
> person living in a different century...
I disagree, especially about the chinese speaking gods. This might be a Runequest 'anachronism' but I always thought that gods knew what their worshippers told them, as well as their specific area of interest (eg Orlanth: Storms, messing the universe up). This was the basis of the Divinations that priests performed. This is not exactly message boy, but it does (did) indicate that worshippers do (did) have a role in the information theology of their cult. If I am to enter a 'terrible analogy' competition then I would compare the deity with a newspaper - you can pass on interesting stories to the editor but he might only publish those that are really interesting. Some gods might have a "classifieds" section, where you can pass on specific messages but you still need the intended message reciever to go out and buy (and read) the paper.
Makes me think we could have a competition for the least useful analogy used in describing a Gloranthan thing. Perhaps for another list.
Keith
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