Following on from David's posting, here are some further ideas as to where Chaotic sorcerors might be found in my Glorantha:
Gark and Seseine
Don't know anything about Seseine, but would like to know more.
FWIW MRQ suggested that Gark was a theistic cult, but that in the Second Age there was also a sorcerous society which had replicated much of their magic. So whether or not Gark's cult is sorcerous, one could certainly create Gark-esque magic from the Essence Plane.
Things which should have died with the Godlearners
A supplement to MRQ suggested that some Godlearners might go so far as to undertake Chaotic Heroquests for power and knowledge of Chaos gods (who wre probably weaker in the Second age than in the Third), and gave some very brief examples of some of the things they might get up to and the rewards of doing this.
>From this I might infer that sorcerous societies like the Order of the Cerrulean Gauntlet in Blood over Gold, which seek out some the lost lore and magic of Old Slontos, might fall into Chaotic heresies through this route. Further West I could imagine a Galvosti heretic trafficking with Chaos too.
Ramalia
Another remnant of old Slontos (further complicated by demonological practices) is the heretical Ramalian Church. I don't imagine they care terribly much whether their sorcery is Chaos-free or not. In my Glorantha Ramalia was the Gloranthan home for some of the demons written up in a series of non-Gloranthan Runequest articles in White Dwarf in the mid-1980s (Dealing with Demons, in WD 44-46, plus a demonic scenario in WD 48 IIRC, also reproduced in Best of White Dwarf Articles III). Thus my Ramalian Church was a dark parody of Henotheistic Malkionism in which the Ramalians venerated as Saints an eclectic pantheon of these greater demons, traditional chaotic gods and Zorak Zoran (an idea from Tradetalk #10 - 11).
My House Rules for all henotheistic/Stygian Malkionism (and the Ramalian Church) was that these churches knew sorcerous spells which allowed worshippers venerating Saints that were pagan gods in other places to get limited Divine Magic (a few of the 'signature' divine spells from the theistic cult) from their Saints, as if they were members of a Spirit Cult (using the old RQ rules reproduced in the Cults Compendium). They also had access to some 'mainstream' sorcery too
This idea is probably wrong at many levels of Gloranthan metaphysics, but it sort-of worked. Another virtue of it was that it largely did so by reworking and relabelling existing rules rather than adding new ones.
The Ramalians could also use the "lesser demons" from this series as summoned 'cult spirits', controlled by sorcery or bribery and sacrifice. Alternatively there was the Pact of the Dark Companion, a ritualised sorcerous spell which (in game mechanics terms) allowed the sorceror to make a pact with a summoned lesser demon like the kind of pact a shaman migh make with a spirit ally. (In game mechanics terms I treated the demonological techniques in these articles as skills or sorcerous spells).
Kingdom of War
The magicians of the Kingdom of War must be sorcerors in Gloranthan terms -- they are seen as evil magicians by those who oppose them, and thery perform powerful and complicated ritual magic that outsiders don't understand. However I don't know whether their magic tainted by Chaos? It is destructive and nihilistic enough that it might be -- but Gloranthans don't need Chaos in order to be evil.
Guild of Chaos Monks
In my Glorantha this Ralian sect are a more extreme offshoot of the Boristi heresy. They take the chaos taint into themselves rather than their familiars. However there may well be an official interpretation of what they are about.
Atroxic Church and Delecti
I wondered if Sir Ethilrist's Atroxic Church might be tainted with Chaos by its demonic associations, but on balance thought this was unlikely. Though their Heortling neighbours might subjectively take a different view ...
Similar considerations apply to Delecti -- I am pretty sure the necromancer's Heortling neighbours say he is Chaotic. I am less sure about whether the neighbours are right about this.
Vampires
Are some/all Gloranthan vampires still tainted with Chaos? Do they still practice sorcery? They might be another source of chaos-inspired sorcery. Ditto followers of Nontraya
Atyari
I don't think it would be that great a stretch for some Atyari to dabble in sorcery either, possibly via fragments of the Book of Drastic Resolutions (below)
Book of Drastic Resolutions
Finally there was the interesting (unofficial) suggestion that there was a famous Chaotic grimoire called the Book of Drastic Resolutions (in the Chaos edition of the fanzine of the same name), parts of which might be found and used as a grimoire by Chaotically-inclined magicians.
Originally it was suggested that the spells in this grimoire could be modelled on spells from Call of Cthulhu or Stormbringer (so in game mechanics terms as RQ was in the mid-1990s, these were probably rare and powerful Common/Spirit Magic spells). In my Glorantha I went down the 'Cthulhu' route as that is what I know.
However in terms of the mechanics of MRQ or HQ maybe these spells would nowadays be considered as part of a sorcerous grimoire instead?
Bagogi
I couldn't envisage a Scorpion-man that was a 'proper' sorceror, but maybe a Scorpion-man which ritually devoured a sorceror might remember a few spells?
Richard Hayes
From: David Cake <dave_at_dwL44mgmKB1jEn3h7gk2emPQt5w3JAD0gVxngii7Hr1TiRAok5ImJzzUGOs8cRDgamjuKqt3dDkiPEEl.yahoo.invalid>
To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2011, 11:50
Subject: Re: chaos mages/sorcerers
There is at least one famous chaos wizard in Genertela - Arinsor the Chaos Wizard was a first age foe of Talor the Laughing Warrior, and many of the chaotic powers and beings he summoned still threaten Fronela.
Lunars and Borists are the only reasonably sized sects that would willingly mess with chaotic forces that I can think of - but individual sorcerers who somehow get hold of chaotic spells/grimoires can certainly exist to the extent you want them to.
I think there are probably several minor chaotic sorcerous cults in Pamaltela, ultimately due to Vadeli influence there. I personally think Seseine is probably a sorcerous cult, and I'm not too sure about Gark The Calm either.
Cheers
David
On 01/12/2011, at 7:14 PM, giannieanna wrote:
> Hi all...
>
> [the following post EXCLUDES Lunars and Borists!]
>
> In Glorantha, wizardly magic is fuelled by one's understanding of Logic. I was hence wondering if the Gloranthan canon envisioned anything resembling 'Chaos magic'
>
> cheers
> Gianni
>
>
>
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