> Now I don't know if the Vithelans even think of the
> lower gods and spirits and things as "the three worlds" or would have to
> have at least one of each style. I only ever saw "gods'
The lower spirits and gods _are_ mentioned in the sources, namely Vith explicitly defeating the three errors of Animism, Theism and Sorcery (Revealed Mythologies p57-58) or Ombardaru (for example) being described as:
'do[ing] all the common sacrifical activities throughout the Islands. [...] They have a "low church" compared to the urban "high church" overseen by the High Gods' (RM p58).
I used this and other details to distill a workable and easy-to-digest version for all the non-"gloranthan scholar"s out there about how I feel Vithela should be like without the agony of mysticism rules, which was my main concern. If the Vithelan mythology didn't have these three-world details then I wouldn't have bothered mentioning them.
> But this discussion makes me wonder again - what defines the three
> worlds? Is it how your magic manifests? (Feats/Spirits/Spells)
Look and feel works fine for me.
> I remember being told on this forum that most
> people in Glorantha don't know of/think of the three world system as
> such, and I've also been told the opposite.
Without knowing who was doing the saying, it's difficult for me to comment on who was right and who was wrong. I should point out that in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes p185, there is an in-voice discussion of how the three worlds appear to the Orlanthi.
> From an HQ2 rules view (which probably needs to be on the HQ2 list) it
> gets back down to this idea of does "Theism" have a rule set which
> applies to all Theism, or is Theism about a relationship to the gods and
> how this manifests in magic is more variable.
One can run a HeroQuest magical campaign without resort to the Three Worlds and Mark Galeotti's Russian Campaign does this. But in Glorantha, the three worlds have been integral ever since Cults of Terror (published way back in 1981). If you think you can play glorantha without the three worlds that's fine by me but constructive examples of how to do so would be preferable.
--Peter Metcalfe
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