Party on:
Sandy Says:
> 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...I responded that Humakt was not an evangelical sect. YOU
>had to qualify for Humakt, not the other way round. ...
>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. ...
How true. Don't forget, though, that harsh rules are actually *conducive* to recruiting. Something in the human make-up says, "Wow, if they're this tuff, they must got sump'n important." And this applies in non-religious organizations as well. That's why the Rotarians (with mandatory duties) are more popular (and effective) than the Ruritans (who are basically the same except more lax). Bring on the kosher rules! Bring on the Fast of Ramidan! Death to anyone who eats meat on Friday!
There was, on at least one occasion, a religious festival in ancient China at which an adherent cut off his own arm and (using the other one) waved it about in the crowd during a procession. That'd be a hell of a way to recruit--"Our guys are so devoted they cut their own arms off for the glory of the City God." It also shows that our modern mindset is *not* a good way to understand people from the past.
Nick:
>filled (in some cases) with an almost fanatical devotion to the
>Prophet.
And a nice red uniform ...
Nobody expects the Iron Rod of Rokar!
Nick talks about buggery and uses the Latin word "irrumabo" (I will irrumate). Actually, irrumation is the act of forcing another to perform oral sex upon one. (Practically the only thing I remember from Senior Latin was the dirty bits of Catullus.)
Nick, thanks for the Perfecti write-up. I *thought* that Mike was saying "Perfecti" in the Malkion seminar, but I wasn't sure till now. Shades of Pelagianism. While we're on the subject, do you agree with David Hall's assessment that the crucifixion of Hrestol on Mount Sogolotha was a "cheap thrill"?
Andrew Joelson on 7 Mothers v. its constituent parts:
I play that the 7 Mothers are mostly found in border areas, and serves the functions one would expect from a Lunar border cult: teaching, defense, conversion. The individual cults are also found, but mostly within the empire.
A person is more likely to start with the 7M and move on to an individual cult than vice versa, but both happen. An example would be a soldier type who joined 7M and continued to act as a soldier; eventually, he'd give some thought to specializing in YT. The specializing signifies that the soldier is committing to the military lifestyle. It may also be a sign that he is moving to a more civilized area of the empire, or that the area where he is at is becoming more civilized.
Re: Childbirth magic
Obviously, attitudes are going to differ from place to place. The reasons I don't think people will think highly of anesthesia magic are complex, and related to my findings about anesthesia in the RW. In the U.S., a sea change has occurred in the last 20 years or so. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of our mothers had total anesthesia for our births, but that's totally unheard of now. Anesthesia is used to manage pain. But the way we perceive pain is a social construct. In the RW, pain used to be viewed as something useless to be avoided. Now it's viewed as part of the birthing process, and you're "cheated of the experience" if you don't go through it.
Let me jump to an analogy: would a warrior use a magic spell to lessen his battle-rage?
Also, the emphasis on magic as a substitute for technology misses the mark. If a baby dies in childbirth *in a magical world*, it's obviously because of some curse/sending/evil spirit. The thing to do is not to cast "Diagnose Cephalopelvic Disproportion," but to create a sacred space for the holy event, thus keeping the spirits & spells at bay. Burn herbs, ring bells, etc.
In other words, weave a ceremony. A looong time ago, I think I posted my Woven Magic essay to the RQ Daily. In a nutshell, it was about putting symbolic elements together to achieve (mostly) life-cycle rites. Greg Stafford's response (given to me second-hand) was that all magic was woven. Let me suggest that spells like Enjoy Pregnancy resemble one of Dr. McCoy's shots on Star Trek more than the kind of drum-tapping, yarrow-stalk-throwing, night-dancing fun weirdness I want in Glorantha. One man's opinion.
I'll let you know my feelings about birth ceremonies once I've been through one. A week or three at most...
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