>All this talk about Heroquest stimulates the senses I think:
>Now it seems that the gods were often ambushed, attacked, beaten up on etc.
>usually without knowing what's going to happen to them. So, a potential hero
>(small h since the big H are probably above this) really should come upon
>their heroquests rather than have extensive preparation! After all, did
>ZZ know Yelmalio was going to attack at the Hill of Gold? OK, the LBQuest
>*maybe* one where there is a definite preparation, but IMHO there's not many
>of them.
The thing is I believe that once you start HeroQuesting in your gods image, you become vunerable to being made an involuntary stand-in for your enemy HeroQuests. To go onto the Hills of Gold as a Yelmalio Lightson means that you are vunerable to magically encountering your enemies re-enacting _their_ heroquests. You can prepare for this sort of thing (like using Path Watch to stop the Zorak Zorani Berserk effectively causing surprise) but you would still be at a disadvantage becuase that is what you believe your god did.
If I want to stop someone from being enthroned as Emperor of Dara Happa, I could dress up in fish skins and hide out in the spirit plane. Thus when the unfortunate emperor comes into view, he won't see me (because Yelm did not see Basko) and thus I could try to assasinate the fellow. Think of heroquests as a form of sympathetic magic to deal with your enemies.
Michael Raaterova:
I had written:
>>I'm of the opinion that really all scripts have a high form (ie
>>hieroglyphs) to use in public works ('Office of the Imperial Auditor')
>>and a low form which most literai use in day-to-day communication (ie
>>hieratic).
>For the hieratic type of script to evolve, i'd think literacy has to be
>widespread. Otherwise there wouldn't be day-to-day communication. So what
>cultures have widespread literacy? What cultures hold writing as sacred and
>forbid 'profane' use of the holy letters? Some cultures are bound to view
>literacy as restricted to nobles and/or priests. If we take an egyptian
>analogy, lettercraft could be a mystery understood only by Scribes (in a
>predominantly oral culture writing is very propably seen as arcane or
>mysterious).
Good point.
The lunar empire is reasonably literate. Literacy began around Khordavu's reign as the Priests had lost their monopoly then. Sheng's dance Across Peloria is said to have destoryed this as the war broke down much of the social fabric of the Empire, but this has recovered after Sheng got sent to a nice place. So IMO there is a Hieratic script in the Lunar Empire.
Kralorela: The literacy is somewhat state-enforced. If you're not part of the August Bureacracy then you generally don't have the time to swot up on ideograms and gain a basic understanding of them. This was a historical problem in China. But the plus side for the bureacracy is that the masses tend to treat them with a lot of reverence.
The West: I agree with Michael for the most part about literacy being 'confined' to the Nobility. However I don't think this means that of the four castes, only Nobles and Wizards know how to read and write. Some of the wealthy commoners, especially those in the mercantile regions (ie Safelster and Nolos) would know how to do so.
I suspect that religious attitudes towards letters would be strongest in the less urban regions (Genertelan examples would be Inland Wenelia, Eastern Ralios, Upland Fronela, the Ygg Isles, Brolia, Balazar, the Shan Shan Mountains, Bliss in Ignorance and Teshnos).
>I don't think every Lankhor Mhy is literate - a minority more likely. In LM
>temples i suspect Letterer is one of the important cult personae, in
>addition to Chronicler, Lawspeaker, Philosopher, Diviner and Collector.
>Irripi Ontor dudes undoubtedly have higher degrees of literacy.
It depends really. For a backward place (like Brolia and the East Wilds of Ralios, say) I would expect this to be true. But Tarsh and Sartar are somewhat more urbanized due to influences from the Lunar Empire and and so I would be suprised to find an illiterate Greg Sage in these areas. I strongly suspect that some of the urban Orlanthi are also literate.
[Esrolian Cuneiform]
>>However I think that
>>since the God Learner conquest of Esrolia, Cuneiform has fallen from use
>>in favour of the standard tradetalk alphabet and only extremely traditional
>>places (like Earth Temples) use the cuneiform any more.
>I think not. The cuneiform script used would have strong ties to the
>cultural traditions and religion. I can't think of any RW culture that has
>changed their system of writing and not fundamentally modified their
>religion/culture, which has not happened in Esrolia [what i know of].
Erm, if the God-Learners _didn't_ modify the culture of Esrolia when they conquered the place (see Zistor), that would have to be a first! Later on, you state that a middle east parallel of using many scripts. That is not too different from what I was proposing.
Andrew Behan:
>What is the difference (if any) between religion in mystic Kralorela and
>theistic Peloria. Do cults function in the familiar way in the East?
A Theistic cult would be only at the outlying regions of Kralorela. It is considered a sign of spiritual backwardness by the Mandarins, IMO. The more enlightened cult of Dendara still have the average peasantry worshipping Dendara but there is no Priesthood. Instead the spiritual energies of the worshippers are manipulated by State Theurgists to the Welfare of the Community (ie Bless Crops). All IMO.
Powered by hypermail