Glorantha

From: nickh_at_compans.com
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 19:10:34 GMT0B


Phil Johnson on Illumination:

> Just how does Illumination fit into the world ??

(IMO) For the normal Gloranthan the Gods are the highest expression of the reality of the world. They represent their followers world view incarnate. To act against them is to act against their own reality. Such a person believes their views to be OBJECTIVELY true.

Illumination is a form of enlightenment that causes those who reach it to see above this to a higher form of truth and see that a persons world view is subjective, that when two people hold different philosophies these beliefs are true because they work in the context of each persons life and there is no way to choose between them. An illuminant believes all views, including his own, to be SUBJECTIVE.

There may be more intended than this - an flavor of mysticism for instance - but this is how I see it when its stripped to its core.

For me one of the 'rules' of Glorantha is that what you believe to be true IS true. The normal Gloranthan is tied strongly to his Gods who are his core nature and is in their power. On a mystical level there is a oneness of Diety and believer that isnt true for the illuminant. The illuminant chooses to reflect his gods nature but knows he could choose to play out the opposition role if he wanted. Mentally he is free from ties to their reality and this reflects in his freedom of action. In a way the normal gloranthan brings retribution on himself.

I realise that I must have it somewhat wrong because this view is a very modern one. We have come to it through rationalism and science. The riddling that illuminates smacks of Zen (I speak as someone who knows nothing about it) in the way that it upsets comfortable mind sets. (DPMOTIDKWITA) Perhaps someone who does understand Zen could comment on Zen and Illumination.

Another clue that I have it wrong is that the Lunar narrator in the old Cults Of Chaos exhibits something close to this attitude but is not illuminated.

Heres an alternate suggestion... perhaps the illuminant believes that everything is an illusion, that nothing is true and thus that every view or belief is equally false or incomplete.

Problems With Illumination:

  1. We want to understand exactly what illumination is. Unfortunately its a fantasy philosophy - which means it has no real world counterpart. Therefore we try to invent a philosophy. This is a non-trivial task(!) Even worse its is meant to be an anti-rational philosophy, yet we are trying to rationalise what it means. If we got to a point where we could explain what it was we would have destroyed a large part of its charm.
  2. The sort of Illumination I have described is what most of us tend towards believing in the real world. We rationalise and trade off good verses evil. We tolerate things we think are 'bad', even evil, as long as they only effect those who choose to get involved. Its the mind set of the fanatic Orlanthi that is alien to us. I think we rarely play the normal member of gloranthan society right. Most player characters exhibit very illuminated behaviour. In fact most act like God Learners. This makes it hard to play the illuminant since no-one can see the difference.
  3. Why cant the Gods tell that the illuminant is not bound to them in the way that their other worshippers are. If there is some form of bond between the two why cant the god tell that in this believers case he puts it on and takes it off as it suits him.
  4. We dont understand how the Gods see mortals and how close an eye they keep on them. I think that a God is aware of his followers in proportion to their importance to him. For minor transgressions of The Law I would have the player make a POW roll weighted by status in the cult to see if the God is aware of what happened. Possibly Lay =3D POWx1, Initiate=3DPOWx2, Lord/Priest =3DPowx4.

Call for Riddles:

Still on the subject of illumination - can we have a general call for suitable riddles, or have we been down this track in previous issues?

[Apologies if this posting is garbled - Its Damn hot for the UK and I'm finding it difficult to think] 

Nick H  |---------------------------------------------------|
        | Nick Hollingsworth,                  UK: B90 2RA  |
        | Birmingham - Land of the Free, Home of the Balti. |
        |---------------------------------------------------|

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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #30

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