"Mikko Rintasaari" <mikrin_at_...> wrote:
>
> How long do you think it takes to learn sorcery? I'm not talking about
> the odd player hero who decides to give it a go, but the cultural norm.
>
> How old is a child/youngster when he get's sent to a school, and how
> many years does it take before he/she comes out as a journeyman or
> equivalent.
>
> I'm also wondering how widespread is literacy supposed to be in the west.
>
Hello,
Do you mean the "raw" sorcery independent of the recognized churches and orders (HeroQuest, pg. 155 right)? I am sure you mean _wizardry_, which of course was termed Sorcery in both RuneQuest and Hero Wars.
I have no firm idea of these things, but I recall that
I used to work from the info in the RQ: Glorantha Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars (1988) to make up
my Malkioni material. I am deeply interested in the
Malkioni myself.
Now, as far as literacy is concerned: I'd say real literacy
(spelling more than your own name and reading texts fluently) would be a skill of 5% of the adult population,
sometimes less. It could be 10% in important cities.
How long does it take to learn wizardry? Well, how much wizardry do you actually want to wield?
Player-characters and oddfellows aside, who might be born with wizardly superpowers, I imagine it like this:
Privileged boys might be apprenticed to a master
at age 15, give or take a year.
The basic teachings of the school and some traditions
would be known after two years.
After another year, the boy might know 1-3 simple spells.
By that time, he would be 18 Gloranthan years old.
If he keeps studying hard, at the expense of many other
things, like learning a non-magical trade, he can be
a journeyman by the time he's 20.
It gets harder for most people after that.
Probably add another 5 years to be an experienced
journeyman who knows two dozen spells and might even
have seen grimoires from other schools [age: 25].
Depending on the traditions, the hierarchies and pressures from outside, then maybe after an average of another 4 or 5 years the character could be a "master" [age: 30].
For this I assume political stability, regular support, and no need to work another job full time. In other words, nothing exciting happens in the character's life and he keeps focused on his wizardry studies.
Mind you, my rule of thumb basically dictates that
it seems unlikely to be recognized as a master before
age 30, even if you are very good.
This is not Luke Skywalker who goes from being a farm
kid who's never heard of the Jedi (A New Hope) to
being a Jedi Master (Return of the Jedi) in 4 years of "game time". ;-)
In order to reach the rank of a grandmaster or magus, I think you'd have to study on to age 50 to 60.
This should mesh well with the other rule of thumb in HQ, saying that you can give a character an automatic +1 to all their keyword abilities per every uneventful year.
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