Re: The Unholy Trio: Rephrasing the Question from Richard Hayes on 2008-12-29 (World of Glorantha)

From: Richard Hayes <richard_hayes29_at_-sZhqKc8Pgfd7zypopR_RQlkC5mcerCOTE8D68lVkl2-m44Jn4BJNahRoVGP>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:54:12 +0000 (GMT)

Is Mallia's inability to kill quickly a sign of her desire to inflict pain and fear rather than death, or simply a sign of weakness-- that her death magic can kill, but not as quickly as others, because it isn't as efficient.
If Mallia truly wanted to perpetuate suffering rather than death, surely her disease-causing magic should work in such a way that the best outcome for the disease master was a slow death for the victim, but one that was very difficult to prevent once it had taken hold?
Richard Hayes

On Mon, 29/12/08, Keith Nellist <keithnellist_at_1D0lN4TklYc3brNJBiiN89veT0yWU0ihYyX5G__ZqfY3eXD-XDskZDcQ06CCnW5TtTmelVqsuqzDXMUVB8A.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

From: Keith Nellist <keithnellist_at_1D0lN4TklYc3brNJBiiN89veT0yWU0ihYyX5G__ZqfY3eXD-XDskZDcQ06CCnW5TtTmelVqsuqzDXMUVB8A.yahoo.invalid> Subject: Re: The Unholy Trio: Rephrasing the Question To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, 29 December, 2008, 9:51 PM

>
> How did Malia acquire the power of Death? In other words, what's the
> mythical reason for people dying of diseases, instead of having to
> suffer from them for all eternity? I imagine that this could actually
> be a heroquest Malia *lost*: after all, death in such circumstances
> can be a mercy. Did Eurmal trick her into stealing Humakt's sword,
> without her realising what it would do?
>
> Stephen

It is worth thinking that Malia doesn't really want to cause death. She wants to cause suffering - prolonged, slow, agonising, avoidance of death. She usually fails - because most things die. Remember that she gave up on devastating plagues that kiled everything. They're not the way to go for maximum suffering.

Forgetting about chaos for a moment, my feeling is that she is trying to bring the underworld back to the world of the living - to merge the two so that the miseries and fear of darkness afflict the living. This is where Humakt and Daka Fal and all those "seperating life from death" guys get annoyed with her. You've got to be one thing (dead) or

another (alive) in their philosophy. Malia is trying to do a half alive half dead thing.

Keith

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