>Not sure about that, really - IMO the God Learners managed to
>manipulate the runes without attuning to them, achieving magical
>closeness to the deitites without becoming like them, and _that_ method failed.
My problem with this is that it implies that the Gods own the
Runes. RuneQuest did
state this outright but with the literature since then I think it's
more of a case of a
rune having three magical expressions - Yelm owns the theistic
expression of fire,
Ehilm the sorcerous expression and X the animistic expression. So the God
Learners can attune themselves to the runes without having to go through the
deities (or rather the Gods and Spirits). What they attempt to do was to make
the Gods and Spirits more like themselves and that failed.
>Without knowing the HQ2 rules, I still think that on a lower level
>sorcery users
>still ought to be able to manipulate their runic knowledge, but when it comes
>into the region of divine power, their opposition would be the
>appropriate divine power,
Sorcerous power runs parallel to theistic power IMO. Thus if a sorcerer was
trying to manipulate a runic manifestation equivalent to a god in
power, he would
be working on the Saints Plane rather than the Spell Plane (for
ordinary magic).
Thus if he was trying to manipulate fire, he would be struggling against
Ehilm rather than Yelm.
>The non-Tanisoran Genertelan Malkionism apparently was formed
>single-handedly by Halwal, a dissident abbott from Seshnela who
>reformed the Fronelan church and even managed to formulate a basic
>unified Arkati theology before abruptly leaving for Seshnela to
>violently end his personal dispute with the greatest local church
>authority there (a Pithdaran wizard).
That's not what the source (Middle Sea Empire says). While Halwal
instigated the Losklami
rebellion, there were rebels and dissident theologies before he
arrived (MSE mentions
the Knights Narensaval and Tryensaval). Secondly he didn't created a
basic unified Arkati
theology but simply had won the trust of the Arkati there to decide
which of them was true
but left before he could give an answer (if indeed he ever could).
Insofar as Halwal actually believed anything, he was closer to his
rival Yomili than either
the Loskalmi or the Arkati. His primary motivation was a fit of
pique rather than "God
Learnerism is Bad". He would have strengthened the Loskalmi and
Arkati in terms of
magical support (analogous to providing them with planes, tanks and
stinger missiles)
rather than in terms of ideological support. If he had won his
contest with Yomili, he
would have felt free to reimpose God Learner orthodoxy over his
erstwhile allies.
Likewise Halwal isn't recorded as having been among the Carmanians or
the Aeolians.
They were simply too far away to do any harm to Yomili.
--Peter Metcalfe
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