>> Jrusteli God Learning was always a whittling-down process, though, >> so I imagine the same instincts to have been at work when they >> "did over" their own religion.
> Not true. They synthesised the C&A cult, constructed Grandfather
> Mortal, etc.
Which proves my point. There used to be stories about Wild Man, Old Man, Grandfather, Father Malkion, First Man, Ancestral Man, etc. When the God Learners finished with him, there were stories about Grandfather Mortal. If that's not a "whittling-down process", those words must mean something different in Glasgow.
Chalana Arroy likewise: Sisters of Mercy, Chalana, Harana Ilor, Arroin, Erissa, others who don't spring to mind, all mushed together to produce one composite healer cult.
They are:
Talar Crown Zzabur Sorcerer's Staff Horal Sword Dronar Plough
The Sorcerer's Staff can be made to look something like a bishop's crook: imagine it with a Magic rune on the end of it, so as to look like this:
|\ | \ | / |/ |\ | \ | | | | |
Of course, there's loads of useful variations upon this theme. Let's not over-standardise the West after all this good diversity we've got going!
So, what to do about Hrestol?
Well, we could drag him to the place of execution behind a plough team, force him to wear a "heretic's crown" of thorns, or of red-hot iron, or some such painful substance; we can beat him over the head with our sorcerer's staves, or use them to cast Decrepitude spells and other embarrassing sorceries at him; then we put him to Death with the Sword.
Alternative plough uses: we could plough him into the earth once he's dead (though we lose publicity for his miraculous ascension into Solace if this is carried out; maybe it wasn't, clearing the Brithini "common man" from the blood-guilt shared by the three high castes), though this risks turning Hrestol into an agricultural dying & rising god; or perhaps we could cut off his feet in a staggeringly unlikely agricultural accident; etc.
(Thanks to Joerg Baumgartner and Graeme Lindsell for cruel ideas).
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #216
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