NOTES ON SANDY'S BRAIN
I use the net as an extension of myself, rather than as a shield, a
mask, or an antenna. Hence, my feelings get hurt if I think someone's
unfair, I use the same phraseology on net as in person, I wander
conversationally onto other subjects, etc. It's not _identical_ to my
conversation, of course, because I'm writing instead of speaking, but
it's pretty damn similar.
Not everyone's like me in their net personas, and I don't think they should be. I don't even think that my technique is the best one. In fact, sometimes I've wished I could use the net in a more antenna-like or mask-like fashion. On occasion I've quit the Digest for days or weeks because I felt bad about something. Almost always it happens when I am engaged in give-and-take, and I felt I was being open-minded (always subjective), and felt I'd made good points, but that my "opponent" was being completely unreceptive. When that happens it makes it all seem futile and I just want to bag it.
This, of course, isn't the norm in net dialogues, where it seems to be traditional (not so much in the Digest, but elsewhere) to let even the most horrendous insults bounce off like slingstones vs. a Shield 20, but there you are.
NOTE: I'm not currently peeved at anyone or anything. I don't have any current axes to grind. I probably wouldn't be able to write the above if I did. But I was recently asked about this by someone and thought what the hell, let everyone read it. Anyway, there you are.
Alison P.
>Concerning soldiers' cults, almost all of them stress loyalty,
>obedience, bravery and frequently truthfulness. E.g. Yelmalio,
>Orlanth, Humakt, Yanafal Tarnils.
But not to the same degree. Orlanth does not stress truthfulness or loyalty or obedience very much indeed, especially by Yelmalio standards. Even Humakt's not so big on loyalty. Of course, all warrior cults cultivate bravery, but not to the same extent. There are other cults which emphasize different things. For instance, Storm Bull doesn't seem to preach much about bravery at all, presumably because you're usually already rash to the point of idiocy if you're interested in this cult at all.
>Abandoning comrades is very bad form, but dying uselessly is stupid.
Depends on the culture. The Japanese, for instance, have a fetish about dying uselessly, the more uselessly the more impressive the death. I read a book on it, in fact, which pointed out that the modern Japanese tend to write about and consider WWII's Kamikazes as having been ineffectual, but heroic. Somehow this adds a frisson to the Kamikaze's aura. Note that most military analyses concur that the Kamikazes were one of the most effective weapons of the war.
I don't think that Humakt encourages his warriors to think in terms of cost-effectiveness. "Hmm, if I stay here and fight I'll die uselessly. Therefore I should abandon my comrades." That's not a Humakti way of thinking. Nor is it Yanafal Tarnils. A Yelmalio might calculate that way.
Humakt is a god of death, and a harsh one, besides. I was once ragged by a person because of the way I played Humakt. He argued, "Who would join Humakt's cult if he wasn't willing to bend the rules a little, if he wasn't willing to be a nice guy. It's good business. He's got to keep those converts coming in." I responded that Humakt was not an evangelical sect. YOU had to qualify for Humakt, not the other way round. He couldn't see it. He was too deeply into the modern religious mindset in which numbers of converts were all that mattered, and he could not grok the fact that the majority of Glorantha's gods don't give a damn about converting anyone to their way of thinking. With a few notorious exceptions, such as the Seven Mothers.
Mike Cule:
>some players in another game were wondering why anyone, anywhere
>chooses to base his culture on sorcery If a peasant who has learnt a
>little sorcery meets with a barbarian who has learnt a little Spirit
>Magic, what happens? [He loses, it turns out.]
>So how do sorcerous cultures survive?
This example is much like wondering how the Romans ever managed to hold off the Germans. After all the average barbarian was a strapping warrior, and the average Roman farmer just a scrawny little Italian guy. The answer of course is that a culture's viability isn't decided in a whole mess of one-on-one clashes.
If your barbarian raided into a sorcery-using area, he wouldn't be facing a big mass of peasants each firing off one-point Venoms (which are more fearsome than you might think -- true, it's one point of damage instead of 1d3 for Disrupt, but the Venom damage is _general_ HP damage, which Heal spells don't cure). The barbarian (and his friends) would, after wreaking a bit of havoc on hapless peasants, meet up with a band of knights and a wizard.
In any case, the fight may be more even than that, even just considering the peasant. Remember that the peasant is likely to have a long-duration spell cast upon him, this being one of the common sorcery functions.
One more note: the sorcery rules have been "vised and revised". Some of your points are not necessarily valid unless you stick with the imperfect RQIII version.
Hon-Eel:
Whether Hon'Eel is a grain goddess or not is kind of semantics. She isn't a grain goddess in the sense that Pela is, but she certainly has a crop fertility taint about her.
Alex Ferguson prods me on the Kralori attitude towards foreigners, after I state that being a Foreigner is, of course a transmissable, incurable taint.
> I suppose that makes sense, in view of their Isolation Island
>approach. Though the fact that they eventually let people _out_ of
>same would apparently suggest that either the condition _is_
>curable, or that not everyone from abroad has it. Or maybe some
>have a non-contagious strain?
The condition is incurable, and everyone from abroad has it. Some _are_ considered to be non-contagious. The purpose of Isolation Island is to winnow out foreigners who actually want to settle in Kralorela, and get the virulence of their foreignerism down to the point that at least the victim's children can be Kralori.
If you're just going to trade or visit, you can get a special bureaucratic permit good for a limited time only. and which forbids you to join a Kralori cult, to engage in sex, to perform evangelical activities, or to write any texts in the Kralori language. Armed with such a permit, you can travel throughout Kralorela, after registering your intended course of travel with the appropriate Mandarin.
At least, that's how I play it.
>> I would expect that members of the cult of Eiritha (i.e.,
>> everybody, at least at lay membership) are _required_ to eat the
>> flesh of a herd animal during certain times of the year.
>I don't see why this would be any sort of ritual obligation. It'd
>be a bit like requiring Magasta worshippers to ritually get wet.
You don't think Magasta worshipers _aren't_ obligated to do this? I bet that a non-water-dweller who worshipers Magasta is required to undergo a ritual complete immersion every Waterday without fail. I also bet that in the Sea Season Dances, any Eiritha woman who fails to eat her chunk of the Spring Calf, roasted over the Sacred Wood, and then seethed in its own mother's milk, is cursed in the upcoming year for not partaking of Eiritha's bounty.
>I don't think of vegetarianism as necessarily universal among CA
>types
I do. I'll stick to this cross-culturally.
I said:
>> I betcha there was at least one important Nysalor cult without any
>>illuminants at all.
Peter M.
>Only One?
I quote: "at least" was what I said, and "at least" was what I meant.
>wasn't one of the questions at the Lore auction was whether the
>Emperor List was complete and the answer was Yes?
So?
Marc Eyraud
>more on lycanthropes in general, telmori and tigersons in particular
>(tigersons kinda disappeared with RQ3...whatever happened to them?)
They're still around. The basic problem with tiger sons is that they're not common anywhere west of the Shan Shan.
Lycanthropes in Glorantha are commonly assumed to be somehow tied to the various hsunchen sects. Not that all the werewolves are Telmori, but that there might not _be_ any werewolves, if it wasn't for the fact that Telmori existed. Certainly the current distribution of lycanthropes adds credence to the theory that they have something to do with hsunchen sects. Note:
Bear-Walkers: Fronela Werewolves: Peloria & Ralios Tiger-Sons: Kralorela & Teshnos Were-pigs: Ralios and Kralorela Were-sharks: East Isles, north coast of Pamaltela Were-deer: Fronela, Ralios, Kralorela Were-jackal: Pamaltela savannah Were-bat: Trowjang Were-spider: Pamaltela rainforest
And so forth. There are some types of shape-shifters that aren't really were-things, like the Vormain Fox spirits, or the Kralori Androgynes (a sort of were-man or were-woman, who can alter his/her sex). The were-jackals are sort of borderline, since they're wholly evil creatures and there aren't any jackal hsunchen.
However, the Doraddi claim that there _were_ once jackal hsunchen, but the tribe had a split. One third decided to be good and true to the ways of old, and they became true jackals. Another third couldn't decide between good and evil, and they also became true jackals, but they remained potentially villainous (that's why you can't trust jackals). The remaining third gave themselves over wholeheartedly to wickedness, and thus became partially human. They now live only to destroy humans. Note that some jackals hate and fear the were-jackals, while others serve them. You just never know about jackals. The were-jackals sneak into human society like parasites, marry women (and then kill them), become chieftains (and order their people to their deaths), and so forth. They're a lot like ogres, and often ally with them, and are often confused with them.
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