Sandy:
By the geas-oriented nature of their cult,
> they do NOT have to do all the horrible death-oriented things
> available to them. They can pick and choose.
Any suggestion what the Gift commonly is for those who forswear the
joy of a wife and children?
Erik Sieurin
> lists a long synopsis of who got Death and when.
>
> Your list has a few errors.
Dran. Did I fumble my Memorize roll that badly? I must go back to KoS
(from where I got the lot) and check, which requires me to wait
until this weekend when I come home.
Also, Eurmal didn't give the sword to Orlanth.
> Orlanth asked Humakt to lend it to him. And Humakt did, to his
> everlasting sorrow.
And I was so sure of that part! Darn again, since I liked it! It
makes for such drama. Imagine:
The scene: Somewhere outside Yelm's Court, Before the Darkness.
Cast: Orlanth and Humakt.
Orlanth: Uhm, Humie.....
Humakt: Yes, Orlanth?
Orlanth: Could I, like, borrow your new weapon?
Humakt: You mean Death?
O: Yes. H: Why in the world would you want that? O: Because I want to beat Uncle Yelm at least in _something_! H: (horrified) Out of the question! You could hurt, even kill someone! O: Aw, brother, get real! I've been cut apart a dozen times, what'sthe problem?
Humakt leaves the scene and in comes Eurmal.
Eurmal:Hey,come play with me!
Orlanth: Sod off, or I'll kick you! I am in bad mood! It is my tight-
ass big brother! he refuses me to borrow his new weapon so I can beat
Yelm, that pompous old dodder.
Eurmal: Look, darling, I can help you! Death is mine, you see, really
mine! _I_ found it, Humakt took it from me! Look, darling, if you
promise to play with me I can get it back for you!
O: Hmmm.... but if he wont give it to me, he sure as hell wont give
it to you.
E: Oh, you stupid, I'll just _take_ it!
O: But that would be _stealing_! And stealing is bad, I do not like
it when people steal my things.
E: Who cares? Besides, stealing is not wrong when what you steal
_really_ would belong to you. And Death is _mine_. And unless you get
Death you cannot beat Yelm, and nothing will change for ever and
ever! That is worse than stealing.
O: You are right! (slyly) And it is _not_ kinstrife, since he goes on
about not being my brother all the time!
E: See? Look, this will be easy! But then you must promise to play
with me.
O: OK, it is a deal!
And then poor O. goes and kills Yelm _without realising what Death
really is_, and without realizing that Eurmal tricks him and keeps
the Real Death, and gives him an inferior copy. Which still produces
such horrendeous results.
Sigh. I think I like this part so much I'll actually keep it even if it is wrong (It can be the variant told by Tricksters!).
And I still wonder why Eurmal gave Humakt death. What did Humakt loose then? Was it something trivial? Or was it soemthing important - like his sense of humor, or his laughter, or his smile?
Peter Metcalfe:
Most Lhankor Mhy initates in a rural context would
have Lawspeaking.
> Urban ones are different. I think the theoretical division of lores
> actually varies from LM Temple to LM Temple (like Boldhome, Bagnot and
> Nochet). How to put this into easy MGF terms is a problem I'd admit.
I thought something like that. So this is the first area of mastery:
Law(speaking, since as a skill it includes not only memorization of
law codes). It is probably the biggest area of study at the various
LMUs, like theology in the Middle Ages.
In addition I do not think they vary _that_ much. Some areas, like
Law, appear everywhere; since Nochet is so big, it may have further
subdivisions than the others - Pavis my for instance class botany,
zoology, mykology, paleontology etc as "Natural History" and be done
with it, whilst Nochet counts them as different subjects. But the
basic ideas of mastery ought to be somewhat more consistent. Or what
would otherwise happen when an initiate moves to another temple,
which I presume they do pretty often - I consider LM a mobile cult,
every Sage probably knows most other Sages who share his
specialisation within , say, Maniria at least by name.
Irippi Ontor has been heavily influenced by Solar and Carmanian
Ideas.
> A 'Red Sage' may resemble a Magi more than the Theyalan Grey Sage.
Nick, what are your comments on this? How are the Magi like?
Does that mean they are influenced by Dayzatar Mystics too? Who is
the Solar equivalent of Lankor Mhy ?
And ought not the IO, coming from a most centralized and bureaucratic
culture have a more standardized system of titles?
I agree with Nick on IO having a "Dewey" or "UDK" or something like
that, by the way. It sounds reasonable. Same thing with inter-library
loans.
Finally, a comment on Mostali procreation. Allow me to forward a
comment on the subject from the Diamond Tin Dwarf Kirgid :
"Human ignorance is, as always, horrendous.
Are not "dwarfs", ie Clay Mostali, "alive"? Of course they are! They
are one of the few traces of True Life left since the destruction of
the Machine! Most other forms of Life are infected with the cancerous
principle of Growth, which means they will:
A, Show irrational behaviour when they are long past their
programming stage, including so-called "lust", the abnormal tendency
to procreate unless it is _absolutely necessary_. This seriously
disrupts their programming, and in addition causes altogether
unnecessary fluctuations in population density.
B, Have offspring widely dissimilar from its parents. This means longterm
planning is almost impossible.
C, Will eventually decay - Decay is the other side of Growth, and
both are dependent on each other! The more humans are born, the more
humans have to die! The same thing happens to Clay Mostali who stray
from their programming. This is not, as ignorant humans assume,
because these Mostali choose not to follow their programming. It is
because they where defects from the beginning! Their apostasy is not
the direct cause of their decay, but a common result of various
defects in their construction!
True Life, like correctly produced Clay Mostali, does not decay.
Instead, it constantly evolves mentally, physically and mystically.
Just watch us Diamond Dwarves! And behold Chark the Liberator, whose
adherance to true Mostali principles and evolution went so far that
his bones turned into stone, a far superior material than the organic
matter his Clay Mostali body was originally built of.
And this brings me to the second point of human ignorance: That
Mostali shoul be inorganic. How preposterous! This is because they
associate us with Stone, and think of the dead, sadly decayed matter
they normally call "stone". They should see the stone of a Mostali
complex, whose internal mystical structure has been repaired and is
again fully functional! That stone is far more "alive" than their own
bodies! This is the kind of matter the evolving Mostali slowly will
turn into.
In the beginning, however, Mostali are as "organic" as you humans.
Witness the simple fact that you can eat our food, and _thrive_ on
it, since it is constructed according to original principles directly
from waste products, recycling matter without having to pass the
mutated and deficient Uz-Aldryami complex of fungi, invertebrates and
plants. That humans will not eat it, because it is "bland", is
another result of irrational programming and your deficient bodies.
Another human mistake is the use of the Mostali word which is crudely translated into "machine" in your degenerated language. Correctly, it means "efficient, complex tool". The human tendency to associate this with cogwheels, shining metal and funny noises is another result of their incoherent programming and the fact that they are caught by Decay, the dark side of Growth. Clay Mostali are complex carbon-based tools, just like you humans. The only difference is that we are _far_ more efficient.
Similarily effcient tools can be produced by us Tin Mostali, including jolanti, nilmergs etc. The difference between these and Clay Mostali is that they do not include upgrading artificial intelligence units, due to increased cost efficiency in view of their task. We are perfectly able to construct non-Clay Mostali tools with such units, but choose to do so very rarely. I must admit that this requires extensive contact with the Tin Mostali (here meaning _true Mostali_) on the pretemporal paradigmatical level, known to humans as the "heroplane". This deficiency is due to the many faults in the World Machine that has not been repaired yet. But soon they will!"
Erik (Sometimes known as Sven) Sieurin
Powered by hypermail