> [A rural Kralori]'d see the Rice Mother as the actual rice plants.
> [...] But an urban Kralori would probably interpret the Rice Mother
> as a sort of mystical "health" for all rice plants everywhere.
That groks. And might see Kra Li as The Nation (or The World, if he's feeling Righteously Isolationist), in similarly abstract terms.
> It comes to much the same in the end. No worship = no god.
You surprise me, Sandy, I didn't think you took this sort of Shamelessly Solipsistic view (though I always did).
And writes stuff about Shang-Hsa, and why his-name-may-be-cursed:
> [Stuff]
Bravo! Now we can all spit with a little more authentic venom when we have to mention him. (I confess I thought he was the FDR guy. Mea maxima caveat.)
> I believe that Godunya's exceedingly long reign is dissimilar
> to previous emperors [...]
> it may be because the Empire needs more effort from this
> emperor to recover from the ravages of the False Dragon Ring.
Or perhaps that Godunya is utilising the magics of the FDR to prop himself up? Either deliberately, as a side-effect of the changes they must have made to the emperorship.
Andrew Joelson pines for the old RL/RP dichotomy, so Sandy cones him one:
> Okay, as one of the instigators of this alteration, I feel
> there were Powerful Reasons for it. There was too little difference
> between the two, and many cults really had no use for one or the
> other aspect.
Here, here. If this had been carried through into every cult in GoG, I bet heads would have bounced off desks before long at the ole Type B Ruin. "What do *bang* the Lords of _this_ *bang* cult do?"
> Come one, do you _really_ think Issaries has a crying
> need for Rune Lords?
I sort of miss Healers of Arroin, though. I suppose one can reverseengineer one, though, even in the current cult structure, if one allows members of the Arroin sub-cult to count sacked points of POW to the A-guy as rune magic points (assuming they have no other RM). Answers to the question: "Why would anyone want to _do_ this?" on a postcard.
> Zorak Zoran, Humakt, and Storm Bull, among others, no longer
> have a RP equivalent. Instead, their RLs have access to reusable
> magic. This is the way it is.
The only problem I had with this idea was that because of the post hoc way it was done, it made these potionions relatively more attractive to powergaming PCs.
> Just getting a POW of 18 should not qualify you for priesthood in any
> religion.
I have a pet axe to add to this already-worn grindstone. Not only does "Just" getting a POW of 18 not necessarily qualify you, you don't _need_ a POW of 18, or indeed a POW of anything, any more.
The nub of this isn't the rules for qualification, in my view, but the simple issues: Do priests need a (somewhat) high POW to carry out their duties? (As RQ2 implied they did, and as RQ3 summarily doesn't.)
> >CoP says that Humakt priests all aspire to become Swords as well,
> >what's wrong with using the priesthood as a milestone along the way?
> 1) it weakens the awe-inspiring might of the Swords, by having
> another rank as a rival to it. [and three other sound reasons besides]
<sustained applause> On the other hand, I think there _is_ a case for Humakti acolytes. Though only a limited number per temple -- the limit often being Zero. Larger temples probably have the odd synecure which doesn't really require waving around a Very Large Sword, such as administrative matters and a subsidiary ritual role.
This has the handy side-effect of allowing as to pass off any "Sword Priests" we hallucinated in RQ2/CoP as being jumped-up Acolytes. Holy backward compatibility, Batman.
Yanafal is a dead-cert for acolytes, IMO. It is, after all, a more Civilised and Sophisticated cult, with the resources for such fripperies. Another factor is ease of transition between Seven Mothers and YT. (A 7M acolyte or priest can become a YT acolyte relatively easily, and vice versa.)
The Political Attache's discussed earlier are probably very often YT acolytes, in both YT-worshipping and other reguments.
> A high-ranking [Yelmic] citizen of the Lunar Empire, born and
> bred, in one of the Empire's most prosperous cities, who wants to be
> in charge of one of the lunar army's regiments under the divine
> guidance of the Red Emperor is going to refuse to become an initiate
> of Yanafal Tarnils, the Empire's chief war god?
I personally think that this very often _does_ occur. Some of the regiments are still markedly solar, and not all solar types are exactly wild about the Lunar faith. Clearly though, you're not allowed to remain in the army (or alive) while thumbing your nose egregiously at the Sturch. I would think that the officery of, say, Basalt Phalanx, are obliged to be "lay members" of YT, or some other Lunar cult (maybe 7M in the provinces), but not necessarily initiates. Many are, however, since that way you get to ingratiate yourself with the Lunar High Command.
Joining any other Heartland unit, lacking this sort of unreconstructedly Yelmic tradition, has joining YT, or some other Suitable cult as (at least) an initiate is a very firm requirement indeed. (I'd think Hwarrin D., Yara A., and Moonson I. should all do, generally speaking, though I see no difficulty with the proposition that the great majority of officers of regiments under this heading are indeed YT.)
Some non-DH units, of a Modern Thinking bent, may even have a Yelmic Fuddy Duddies Need Not Apply policy, even _if_ they join an acceptable cult. Tough.
The situation for the rank and file is probably not too different. If you worship the regimental god of a lunar unit, then ipso facto, you're a lunar worshipper, no problem. Common soldiers of other unit types need likely be "lay members" in a very loose sense, probably not requiring ever actually darkening the inside of a temple. "Plat-tooooon, on the command Intone, into -- wait for it! -- intone "We all think the Lunar Empire is a Really Good Idea". Anyone _not_ thinking the Lunar Empire is a Really Good Idea, take six steps backward."
> Nick B.
> >If Yanafal Tarnils is a common soldier's god then many Lunar
> >soldiers are decent, honourable, clean-living, gifted/geased, etc.
> >This seems unlikely to most of us
> Come now, Nick. You know better than that. Just because their
> cult urges them to be decent, etc., has nothing to do with whether
> they _are_ or not.
Wise words. By the same logic, one could say "Doesn't it seem unlikely that these Decadent Lunar Nobles become decent, honourable, clean-living _officers_?" Ptah, and furthermore, pshaw.
Alex.
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