The problem with this is, that despite your arguments, I suspect that most of still play that YT does not have priests, only Scimitars.
If you could get us to agree that YT has a separate priest status, then it would probably be easy to convince us that YT priests are chaplains rather than officers.
As an asisde, though, I suspect most of the Native Furthest Corps has Seven Mothers chaplains, and many of these would be in the YT branch of the Seven Mothers.
>2) YT is not an officer only cult.
I think you have general agreement here. However I think that YT is an officer cult, in the sense that many officers join it, and there are probably many units where the troops are not YT but the officers are.
> Dennis Hoover takes me to task for basing much of my arguments on
> Cults of Prax, a charge which I gladly acknowledge; I said so in the
> first place. What should I base my arguments upon, Gods of Glorantha?
Yes. Actually, many of us have the official long form RQ3 writeup of YT, from TOTRM #5. But nothing in there contradicts anything in CoP.
> This too is out of date, and my limited experience with it showed it
> to be broader but shallower than CoP.
As far as nothing in GoG has been explicitly contradicted, GOG is not out of date. Certainly, where COP and GOG disagree, most of us, even some of the RQ2 grognards, will probably go with GOG.
>The fact that I am using an old
> source doesn't lessen the value of the ideas expressed within.
It makes it a lot less relevent to most peoples games.
With respect to the sections quoted from COP about priestly duties -
-first, it is all irrelevent unless you assume that the YT cult has
priests in addition to Scimitars.
-secondly, expecting every cult to conform to the blandness of the COP blank cult writeup makes Gloranthan religion a far more boring thing.
> "... These days all these warrior cults don't have Rune Lords and
>Rune
> Priests. They have Rune Lords, who are effectively RLPs.
>
> I was rather shocked by this when I first realised that this was what
> had been done, but it makes a lot more sense really. ..."
>
>
> I don't see the sense of this from the game-mechanics angle.
I do not think that the decision was made from a game mechanics angle. The idea is that each cult is individual, and the 'lord' and 'priest' separation applies to only some. The decision was made that in many cults one of these status's was irrelevent.
For example, in practice Humakti priests behaved much like Rune Lords anyway - so the idea of a separate, more spiritual side to the cult was removed. Similarly, Storm Bull priests and lords did pretty much the same thing (charge around the countryside killing anything suspicious), and the idea of a 'priest' of a cult dedicated to combat and drinking seemed a bit strange. Many cults now have spiritual leaders that cannot easily be classified as priests or lords. Of course, in the cults where Rune Lords and Rune Priests had separate and well defined roles (like Orlanth) they were retained.
And bear in mind that while some players might be miffed that the option of becoming a priest was removed, only in warrior cults has the Priest status been removed. Many retain both, and many have only priests. A Character who is a professional warrior is presumably aiming for Rune Lord status anyway.
The game mechanics angle is also more complicated by RQ3. Many of the more important bonuses given to Rune Lords where removed (such as the also defend at full POW) or made more widely available (Iron, and skills over 100%, are now available to non-RUne Lords). So Rune Lords where given Rune magic as well.
I echo Nick Eden, I was initially shocked by this change, but now I am much happier with it.
As regards having a sub-cult limited to officers, perhaps. I am wary of having this be the Scarlet Scimitars, though, who I prefer to keep as a more select and elite organisation (I think Plunder says that initiation is a reward for special services?).
Perhaps the officers sub-cult is the one that grants Morale? They are the only people that are likely to use it often, after all (in RQ3, in RQ2 it was used all the time, because it was so appallingly powerful that it was worth casting it on PC parties).
I would like to see a few sub-cults and herocults of YT. Anyone who is up on their Lunar history want to nominate a notable Lunar general or champion? (no, not Parg Ilsi - I suspect that would be politically incorrect).
Cheers
David Cake
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End of Glorantha Digest V1 #132
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