Re: metaphysics, truth and game rules

From: Richard Hayes <richard_hayes29_at_rgA6eHAI3QvTibiYzPcMhahrb1h-uZSLcjU8qwqSuKI8-5qVxv3FJy1QesEb>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 20:55:14 +0000 (GMT)


Death and Life/Fertility used to be the secondary runes of Yelm after Fire/Sky (see e.g. Cult Compendium), and I don't ever remember anyone suggesting that Yelm was tainted by Chaos. The old runes of the Seven Mothers were similar (substitute Moon for Fire/Sky), but then 'Balance' was important to that cult (even if it wasn't seen as its own rune back when Cults of Prax was written).  
If there is a rune of Balance, what does it look like? Also, how is it classified - a Form (doesn't make much sense to me apart from the fact that Chaos is/was traditionally seen as a 'Form' rune, a 'Condition'  rune, or even as a non-Celestial Court 'Power' rune  
In the past, the runes of Death and Harmony have been combined to denote the Hunter, who kills but so as to support his commmunity by poviding food, and who kills no more than is necessary so there will be animals for food later as well as now. Though there is no reason why a third rune could not carry an alternative meaning  
Maybe a voodoo-style cult in Glorantha would use the Harmony Rune to denote the relationship between Death and Spirit? If indeed one would need the Death rune at all for this?   
If there was a voodoo-style cult in Glorantha, where would it be? My money would be on Fonrit, as a shamanic tradition amongst slaves who were resisting the cult of Ompalam  
On the subject of the links between power runes and the members of the Celestial Court, presumably even though the power runes themselves are universal, the idea that certain power runes are linked back to the gods of the Celestial Court is a culture-specific myth.  
Although the shapes of the runes are reasonably universal, I would imagine that the stories behind the designs of the runes are different. In cultures which don't know Humakt (even by another name), presumably the Death rune is not the shape it is because it symbolises the First Sword, nor does the Harmony rune symbolise the harp of a goddess of the Celestrial Court, nor does the Truth rune symbolise the torch of a sky god. What are the stories in other cultures like?

From: ttrotsky2 <TTrotsky_at_TJKERh9PpI2oR-DlJE1x_xpA8-CzRNAiWOHvOT-Npb6qIn0LfrYp9uXDNjoIelLvREFEaIK5eDbS3nirh510REAJow.yahoo.invalid> Subject: Re: metaphysics, truth and game rules To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, 22 May, 2009, 7:22 PM

Alexander Entelechy:

>
> So how this relates to the rules is this. I say I want to do
> something and the GM can say ‘No. That’s not how the world
> works.’
>
> I also assume a God like Baron Samedi wouldn’t be able to
> exist in Glorantha because his personality traits would be
> overwritten by the
> innate traits and values of the death rune. Is that right?
>

I can think of at least three ways of having a compassionate death god under the new rules. Which would work best would depend on exactly how you envisage the god:

  1. Death/Harmony (or similar) - simply have his other rune represent his compassionate side. Death and Harmony are not opposites, so there's nothing in the rules to prohibit this.
  2. Death/Life/Balance - the god does have diametrically opposed traits, but these are permitted because the third rune is Balance (or Chaos).
  3. Harmony/Whatever (or similar) - the god accesses his Death powers through some other rune, just like Zorak Zoran accesses his fire powers through his Darkness rune. 
-- 
Trotsky
Gamer and Skeptic

------------------------------------------------------
Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Not a Dead Communist: http://jrevell.blogspot.com/



------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links






      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Powered by hypermail