> (3) If you're basically incompetent or psychologically
>unambitious or have powerful enemies, you're going to end up as a nun
>or a monk, living in holy orders somewhere far away from the useful
>way of things.
I disagree with this perception. You are seriously sugesting that monkhood is made of a majority of nohopers? Gaah! IMO they should have some function in tending to the realms of pure thought, ie ensuring that the cycles of creation as mandated by the IG are not being screwed around by pagan spirits and such like. The holy orders should be retreats free of impure influences.
I would put the monks at the TOP of the scale. The secular orders are for those who are unable to free themselves of the base lust for power. I do agree that the monks are celibrate but feel that the children of the Wizard Caste would be stuck around the local churches as altar boys and the like. This persists until the age of ten. Boys who show unusal talent are packed of towards a monastory whereas the majority of kids are shoved in the general direction of a seminary which is a school taught by a _secular_ priest.
Girls are taught the basic crafts at a nunnery which exists to keep them clear of impure things, but ensures that they're marriageable. Some remain at the nunnery and become nuns themselves. There is IMO no female equivalent of a Monastic retreat.
[About the Malign Earth Rune being a GL artifact]
> The fact that the Malign Earth Rune appears in both Orlanthi
>and Pelorian cults doesn't mean that it _must_ be a GL artifact.
>Those two cultures _have_ spent a fair amount of time interacting,
>y'know. I believe that the Malign Rune is an Orlanthi discovery that
>proved useful to the Dara Happans.
I don't believe the Malign Earth actually entered Dara Happa from the Orlanthi. Dara Happa and Orlanthi mainly interacted with each other by trying to put the Boot in. IMO The Malign Earth Rune came over Pent via Sheng Seleris. According to Greg, he imported a lot of cults in order to pacify the land. I believe that he observed a Pelorian Revolting Peasant Cult of Gorgorma and realized that it was similar to a Kralorelan Revolting Peasant Cult. Now since he had the magics to control the outbursts of the Kralorelan Cult which were of reduced efficiacy against the indigenous cult, he introduced the Kralorelan Cult (Psst, this is the proper way to do it if you want to eat horse!) Now the clincher is, we know the Kralorelean Gorgorma was (partly) God Learnified.
Martin:
>Re: gods as self-aware entities
> Here's a thought: Monrogh's revelation of Yelmalio is a
>revelation about the god formerly known as Elmal. Thus, if you
>ask Yelmalio by Divination whether a particular Elmal cultist is
>a member of Yelmalio's cult, he'll tell you that the worshiper
>is, but that he doesn't have the full revelation. Sort of the
>way certain RW monotheists think about each other. But if you
>ask Elmal whether the YO dude is a cultist, he'll tell you that
>the target worshiper has severed himself from Elmal.
Shouldn't it be the same in essence both ways? I'm assuming that the divination is asking that whether the other dude lives up to the impression of a pious worshipper of (Y)elmal(io). The God picks up subtext of what the questioner percieves to be Right and answers accordingly. Since the questioners belief is _a_ valid path, the questioner is always right and Y(elmal)io sends him a reply to back that belief up. (Can't have him loosing faith because he's incapable of getting the big picture, can we?)
>Simon Hibbs says:
>>... Thus a rigorously objectivist analysis is incapable of
>>explaining what is going on.
>Oh? Is that what the Mostali say? Or the Malkioni? Those are
>the only two groups to whom the notion of objectivity is
>familiar. To sorcerers in general and the God Learners in
>particular, magic is simply the skillful manipulation of natural
>laws.
You're misunderstanding what Simon meant by Magic and the average Gloranthan understands by magic. What Simon is talking about, I believe, is the individuals relationship with the Otherworld. Thus an Illuminate percieves 'behaviour' in another illuminate that identifies him as such whereas a non-illuminate cannot detect anything because there is nothing to detect. At least in the RW, most reported differences in experiences can be put down to semantics whereas in Glorantha, the relationship of a person to the otherworld is also a material factor.
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