> I wrote:
> << One thing that chaos is, I'd think, that it's also a versatile energy
> source. I loved the reference in G:IttHW about the ruling class of sorcerers
> who use chaos to power their magic. >>
On Tue, 1 May 2001 TTrotsky_at_... wrote:
> Burn the heretics! Chaos as versatile energy source is not the usual
> Malkioni view, although, yes, there are a few groups in the West which
> believe this (much as not all people in central Genertela are heortlings).
Oh, I agree. I was just speaking with my GM/Narrator hat on. I had a lot of fun with this. When the rest of the world was celebrating in the Millenium-party, I ran an apocalyptic Glorantha game for my hard-core RPG friends (yes, you can call me a geek now).
The setting was sacred time 1599, the turn of the century as it were, and the place was Alda-Chur. The Alda-Chur city-confederation (IMG) has an obligation to mount a raid into the Snakepipe Hollow every sacred time, with every clan sending 5 of their best warriors. The event is the local version of the victory over chaos, I Fought We Won, with the city people providing support to the quest.
This time something went seriously wrong. The wind stopped blowing, townsfolk fell over very weak, or started bleeding from their noses and ears. The sun disappeared behind very strange looking clouds, and an eery, slow snofwall started coming down in the dead-still air.
(Scared the crap out of the two of the player characters that vere in the city)
The (indirect) cause of the problem was a western wizard that had come to this pagan land to test his theory (he was an outcast of his order, behaving more like a Zzaburite than a proper malkioni wizard). He had aquired a praxian spirit of Law, which he tought of as a rather unique essense.
He had bound the essense onto the end of his staff (a neat 3 dimensional law rune, a tetra that is), and had found out how violently it responded to chaos.
He had set up a camp in a cave in the hollow (not too deep into it). The "potential difference" between the Law-essense at the end of his staff, and the chaos all around him was giving him whooping amounts of power to use, and being a 70+ year old magus (kept vigorous with his magic) he had a lot he could do with it.
He had subjucated many of the local chaotics. Inserting small silver law-runes under their skin at the forehead, so he was able to control them, and see through their eyes when he wanted to.
His only intention was to stay for half a year, maybe a year, to study and prove his theories. Unfortunately the organized resistance of his controlled group of chaotics was a nasty surprise to the wild-eyed pagans that charged into the hollow to kill chaos.
So the wizard was just defending his territory, but in so doing, he managed to totally disrupt the aldachuri sacred time quest. The forces decimated each other, and it was left to the PC:s (rune-level heroes) to find out what the hell had gone wrong, and to finish the quest the Aldachuri had been unable to compleate. Neatly the aftereffects of the quest had disabled the whole Alda-Chur cityring so that all hope really rested on the PC:s.
***
But the Wizard really was my favorite. An archtypical westener (from the Heortling point of view) medding with forces he didn't understand, and arrogantly believing he was in control.
You can propably quess what happened. The heroes blaized their trail into his lair, following the corpses. And when the wizard confronted them to ask what the horrible pagans wanted, they didn't let him finish his first sentence, before the air was full of Stormbull blessed bronze and flying razor edged shields. Poor wizard.
He was rather doomed anyway, of course. In my opinion, it's impossible to use such amounts of magic, ultimately derived from chaos, and be untouched by the chaos oneself.
-Adept : feeling verbouse
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