>What do people who are obsessed with a fictional world like Glorantha do
>for a living?
I don't know if it qualifies as a 'living' (I certainly don't get paid for it), but I'm a graduate student in the History of Ideas and Science (that's the standard translation - actually, the Swedish words used mean something like "Ideas and Knowledge", but apparently "Science" is needed to get the right idea across to the anglosaxon types; also, if you're an American, for "History of Ideas" read "Intellectual History"). So to answer the rest of Erik's question, I suppose I'm kind of a "professional". Some of the time.
>What is it that make certain people go for certain imaginary worlds like
>this?
Dunno, though Sandy's reply makes a lot of sense. I think the reason it's hard to tell Gloranthophiles from Tekumelites is that we're often the same people...
>How many play
>RUNEQUEST in Glorantha
Not me, not since we gave up doing con tournament scenarios. Our campaign in the East Wilds of Ralios is on ice at the moment. Other people in my group are running (classical) Pendragon and (ultra-violent) Land of Ninja campaigns at the moment. As some of the people reading the rq-rules list might be aware, I'm working on a homebrewed system, currently undergoing tests in a more generic fantasy setting - when I get the basic rules working smoothly, I intend to start work on the specifically Gloranthan stuff and fire up the ol' orlanthi campaign again...
Alex:
>I won't flatly state there's not a theistic cult which does worship
>a dead god
Vivamort?
>Like having
>returned as "undead", if one would count that.
Oh, you thought of that one.
Then how about Nysalor? Not your average theist model deity, of course...
(I'm not even sure Illumination has anything at all to do with him
personally)
Yelm (or the sun god of your choice) is dead half of every day, isn't he?
Aldrya and the various Agricultural Goddesses are, if not dead then at
least in hibernation during the winter. I'm sure their worshippers consider
them 'dead', at least in ceremonial terms.
Colin:
> If Orlanth didn't have his minions
> - would he still be this Orlanthi-Thane-type character?
He _could_ be, it's just that his minions wouldn't be mortals, they'd be spirits and minor godlings and suchlike.
> - or would he just be like the wind?
That, too...
> - would people call this wind Orlanth?
Sure, I mean you have to call it _something_ even if you don't worship the stuff.
> - what place would he have in the godplane?
I think he would be something akin to Gagarth in (the standard, non-Colinized) Glorantha. I mean, you're postulating a deity representing a powerful natural force, who _isn't_ worshipped. What's there left to do but fear him?
> - would he have the Mastery rune?
Possibly.
> - would he have been born at all?
Waddaya mean, "born"? :-)
>What makes these cult-less gods (Kolat, Daga, uncle-Tom-Cobbly et al) Gods?
>I mean why are they considered to be gods?
The fact that they interact on an equal footing with the gods that do have cults?
Alex again:
>While the basic tenets of Western sorcery are up for grabs, what do
>people think about Malkioni attitudes to familiars?
In AiG they use 'familiar items' (staffs and wands and so on), much like the mandalas in LoN. This makes perfect sense to me.
( Jonas Schiott ) ( Institutionen for Ide- och lardomshistoria ) ( Goteborgs Universitet ) ------------------------------
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