My friend expressed interest in the sources that other people had found on garum. Please send me private mail on this subject. I don't remember who brought it up originally, since I delete my digests as soon as I'm done reading them.
Ian Gorlick re: Issaries
>It can also be impossible to support a dedicated resident skald in a
>lowly populated area.
Not if the area's large enough and the skald goes traveling around it. I submit that the Issaries cult, like Donandar, is peripatetic by and large. Only the rare urban places can support full-time sedentary Issaries of whatever variety. But most Issaries are probably wanderers on a circuit, like an old-time peddler.
Hence, even the boondocks get skalds and peddlers coming by. But their incidence may be rare, depending on how out-of-the-way the town is. Presumably Joe's Hideaway Inn (across Snakepipe Hollow in the Stinking Forest) sees fewer Issaries stop by than does Tink (right halfway between Sartar and Tarsh, not far from the Dragon's Eye), even though both these burgs are probably similar in population (50-100 people or so, if they're lucky).
Michael R.
> If Harst Sparegrain is a Heortland god, I don't think the
>Far Pointers are very acquainted with this figure. I don't think the
>average farmer in DP worships Issaries primarily as the Merchant God
Harst (aka Spare Grain) is one of the three major aspects of Issaries the merchant. His subcult is for farmers and other suppliers only, and membership ensures that a traveling Issaries must not charge members more than any non-members in the area. In general, there is an assurance of getting a reasonably fair deal from the merchant, but sadly "fair deal" is in the eyes of the beholder. This is not a small obscure subcult of Issaries but is well-known and widespread. One of its most useful features is that it means that a wandering merchant can have a reasonably good-sized flock of lay members (thus being able to hold a good solid worship ceremony), even in outlying areas.
Remember that Issaries, at the end of the Second Age, was a _very_ widespread cult, and furthermore that by its nature its members are far-roving. This means, to me, that this cult is much less variable from place to place. I don't think you'd see much of a difference between Issaries merchants in Heortland and those in Tarsh. Whereas the cult of Ernalda (say) might be quite different.
I think that even outlying farmers primarily recognize Issaries as a god of merchants, peddlers, etc. Not that the _farmers_ worship this aspect much, of course, except when the merchant comes by and they pull ol' Harst out of the closet and dust him off.
BTW, I agree with David that Issaries is not the god of Skalds. Such a job is likelier to be devoted to be Lhankor Mhy, with Donandar and Orlanth as secondary sources.
Alex Ferguson:
On my Humakti geasa.
First off, I've redescribed my "kill Alex Ferguson" geas as "get special help from Humakt while trying to kill Alex Ferguson", removing the guarantee of victory, and making it better if you get a lot of help.
>This is good to a point, but would still, taken by itself, have a
>big Gloranthopolitical effect if it were this (relatively) easy to
>expunge a head of state, or some other high-heidyin, at the cost of
>a "mere" sword or a dozen or so initiates.
Er. Seems to me that (A) assassins are a real threat in Glorantha. The story of Argrath's entry into Boldhome, for instance, includes more than one assassination attempt. If such attempts were futile, who'd try, given the ease of resurrection?
Secondly, the fact that it's possible to expunge a head of state in our own real world hasn't prevented us from having politics. It's easier to kill off John Major than it is to kill Sor Eel, seems to me, even if we have suicide Humakti on the rampage.
>When you get a Humakt (or Yelmalio, or Thanatar) gift and geas, how
>do you know what it is?
Humakt: you _pick_ your gift and geas, and presumably go through a little ritual to demonstrate the principles and usefulness of obeying the geas. So you _know_ what the gift and geas are, because you asked for the gift, and did a ceremony demonstrating the geas.
Yelmalio & Thanatar: these are more curious, because they are randomly chosen (at least from the initiate's viewpoint). Once more, though, the gift is chosen by the initiate, who presumably simply tells his Light or Doom priest what he wants from his deity.
Then I assume there is some sort of randomization process to determine what the god wants the initiate to receive in return to guide and teach him. More likely the process is some tried and true form of divination that is used only for geas selection. Here's two possibilities:
YELMALIO: the initiate takes the Sun Rune Box, which is shaped like a huge hat-box, and places a bunch of sacred birds inside of it. Around the edge of the box are twenty holes, each marked with a different symbol. At a signal, all twenty holes are opened at once. The holes which the birds use for exit (and in what order) are noted down, and the results determine what geas the initiate must now take, by going through the correct sacred ceremony demonstrating the goodness and mercy of Yelmalio. So he knows what geas he gets, because that's what ceremony he took. I suppose the priest could misinterpret the Sun Rune Box's results, through incompetence or malice, and then not give the initiate the marked geas, but in that case, the initiate would probably notice that he wasn't receiving the benefits of his gift, and could complain.
THANATAR: a prisoner is spread out on the Stone of Sacrifice and starving rats are dumped atop him. The parts of the body that the rats eat first are noted, along with how long it takes the prisoner to die, and these are used to figure out what geas the initiate must take. Then the ritual is performed, just as with Yelmalio and Humakt, and the dude gets his amazing new geas. With any luck he'll get something taking him out of circulation, like "never leave the cult tunnels".
David Cake:
>Any explanation as to what spectres are?
Creatures of illusion. Not as primal as boggles (Disorder beings), but pretty ancient. Perhaps any very long-lasting illusion eventually degenerates (or evolves) into a spectre.
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