I've been following this discussion with some interest, being intrigued by Eastern Glorantha and Mysticism in general.
Once, I ran a HQ1.0 game which involved a group of Lunar Missionaries wandering through the Wastes, Teshnos, Melib, the East Isles and Kralorela. Though the group had largely a Lunar bent (and as the game went on, the Lunar PCs were able to convince some of the Easterners how the Red Goddess was in fact the Seventh Fiery Form, or the strange abandoned child of Gebkeran and Laraloori, etc), the PCs spanned a wide range of mystic philosophies.
I handled it by using the general guidelines in ILH2. Most mystics start out as one of the Three World systems, frequently relying on Common Magic (ala Vai Madar Sa in HQ1.0). When they became able to qualify for a Secret, they could become Illuminated, though each tradition had different terms of labeling the experience, and like in ILH2, bonuses/penalties for magic that came from non-approved sources.
So the Lunars had Illumination, with the Seventh Soul and Occlusions..
The Teshnans had experienced the Zitric Fire, and had Celestial Fire and
Shadows of Ignorance.
The Easterners had the most variety, with some of them perceiving the
Dreamtruth, and others being Unrealized or experiencing The Bolt.
Occlusions factored in heavily, in both good and bad ways. My rule of thumb was that loosing a challenge against The All didn't necessarily make the character unplayable. The level of the Occlusion (from ILH2) stuck around as a personality trait and belief, mostly related to what the mystic experienced. Things such as "The Sixth Fiery Form is Chaos!" or "Sedenya is Sekever!" or "Ashurtans Can Be Saved" lead to some very interesting character developments.
Additionally, at my discretion, these Occlusions would give players access to Virtues, Talents or magical keywords. These would be at 1/2 of the level of the Occlusion. I based this on the Sheng Seleris - Let's say he was offered the World (M14), failed, got an occlusion at around M10-12 or so - that'd give him fallen mystical powers at around a M5-6, which would be enough to take on the Red and Yellow Emperors, invade the Red Moon, etc.
It was a fun game, and I found the ILH2 Illumination system led to a very interesting story.
I hope this inspires more folks to go East in Glorantha. While I applaud the details of Dragon Pass and the Orlanthi, I look forward to the day where all four directions in Glorantha are more fully discovered.
-S. Santo Sengupta
"Aum Shanti Shanti Shantih."
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