Re: Population of Sartar, Re: gods, myths & heroquests.

From: Jonas Schiott <jonas.schiott_at_vinga.hum.gu.se>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 14:05:03 +0100


Well, well, a new list to write to. Of course, all the quotes below are still from the Daily.

Poor Michael Hitchens agonizes over population figures:

>The only figure I had was for Sartar 180,000, per
>G:CotHW.

>I think the real answer is that Greg has not done the sums. One (or maybe
>both) of the following is false:
>1. Sartar has 180,000 people
>2. Clearwine is significantly more important than any of the other stockades
>on the DP map

Sandy, who is responsible for the G:CotHW figures, has admitted (on this list) that they are all wrong. Or at least somewhat garbled. I seem to recall him writing that you could adjust the numbers up or down by as much as a factor of 5, but that seems a bit steep, my memory must be acting up again...

Michael goes on to demolish my Elmal/Yelmalio theory:

>Does that mean if I eventually come to decide that
>my cult's rules are unreasonable, start breaking them because I don't think
>they make any sense (without any feelings of guilt, because they are senseless)
>and then eventually leave the cult because it's all become a joke, the spirits
>of retribution won't touch me?

If you have gained a deep enough conviction of the senselessness, yes. But this deep conviction is what is otherwise known as Illumination. So, when you ask:

>As long as I think I am right I won't suffer
>divine retribution?

The answer is "It's not quite that simple". My reason for extending the illumination immunity in this case is that all the priests said it was allright, which means that the former Elmali never had to suffer the doubt and angst of the free thinker. They were firmly and totally convinced that they were right all the time, and had the best possible authorities to back them up.
So what about the priests, then? Ahh, they were probably illuminated, the lot of them...

[The Divination question again]
>The question I pose should be really easy for a god to answer:
>The god only knows what its worshippers tell it. It should therefore know who
>those worshippers are.

OK, my original reply was slightly off the mark - it didn't really address your question directly. What I meant was that if you ask Yelmalio about the Elmali _now_ he will say "Nope. They're Somebody Else's Problem", but if you ask him whether they ever _have_ been worshippers of the same god in the _past_ he'll just give you a blank stare. And if you ask any of the gods involved if they're the same they might reply "What's in a name?" or just send you a vision or riddle that could be interpreted either way.

[The nature of gods]
>>He. The answer to all of these questions is _yes_. And no... maybe.
>
>That makes life difficult for us poor GMs.

So what else is new? ;->

[In reply to Peter Metcalfe]
>>You some kind of God Learner?
>
>What are you going to do if I say yes? :-)

Welcome you to the club.
I mean, who but a GL would ask:

>Are the gods self aware beings?

My current hypothesis is that they are, it's just that "self" and "aware" don't mean the same to a god as to a mortal. The former because deities are more complex beings, with many qualities (dimensions?) we lack. The later because their perceptive apparatus differs wildly from ours. So it's pointless to do a divination to find out "how are you feeling today?" because the answer wouldn't mean anything to a human.

(      Jonas Schiott                                   )
(      Institutionen for Ide- och lardomshistoria      )
(      Goteborgs Universitet                           )


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