I wrote:
>> I don't think the Kingdom of War is ritualistic in battle. Each Cult has
>> its own method of fighting but that is more like a niche it has carved out
>> in the Order of Battle rather than a divine mandate from the Cult's God.
>i.e. they could be cults similar to Granite Phalanx, whose ideology, spells and
>techniques are those of a particular form of warfare.
I think the Cults of War are more sophisticated than the espirit-de-corps cults of the Lunar Army. They worship what they believe are the actual Gods of War but judge the truth of their relvations on the battlefield. If a cult fails a fight, then its practices are held to be in error. The survivors undergo a period of soulsearching to find the correct way. Given this, I think it is possible than a Cult's tactics and practices can vary widely over a period of time. Naturally they balance the effectiveness of the tactics against a need to maintain communion with the God (ie the Cult of Valind doesn't start playing around with pyrotechnics). But they are more adaptive to military necessity and innovative than any other culture on Glorantha. So even if Loskalm does get its shit together and start fighting properly, they are still going to be hammered in a big way.
Martin Laurie:
>Kingdom of War: You said they were too savage to have a staff or other
>forms of higher military structure. This seems a bit unlikely to me,
>given their love of war in all its aspects.
Herein lies the crux of the matter. The Kingdom of War's professed love for War in all its aspects is quite a different thing from it actually doing so. These pyschopaths worship the Gods of War for the destruction of it all. The dispassionate analyses of the staff college doesn't cut the mustard for me.
[Harrek again]:
>Added to this, I tink if you cast an offensive magic at him, he can see the
>path the spell takes to him and then using his own massive power reserves,
>he can force the spell back at you or just block it easily.
WRT to Harrek being able to manipulate the flow of magic, it just seems to go against the image of Harrek as Pirate King and Brutality Incarnate. Even if Harrek is modelled on Harald Haralda, the Spell Turner Trick still seems alien. It would be okay for the Red Emperor or even Argrath to do such a trick (If they had access to the infinity rune, that is), but I can't see Harrek doing it. I will change my objections if someone gives a plausible method of say how Harrek manages to warp the enemy spells with his tools at hand. Harrek discorporating the Polar Bear God to trouble the enemy priests would be a good way, but Harrek isn't a Shaman...
>I would still be interested to know what happens to him during the bulk of the
>Hero Wars and where does he go? I can't believe he would just kill himself or
>be killed without a chronicler somewhere knowing. After all he was written
>about by everyone according to KoS. Any ideas anybody?
Argrath's Saga was written about Argrath primarily and the book was likewise devoted to him. For instance Sir Ethilrist is scarely mentioned and Aelwin Beatpot not at all, yet these were prominent foes against Argrath. The Story of Harrek is known but when he departed, Argrath was HeroQuesting. Thus the matter of his departure or death was immaterial to the Saga. Ergo it won't be mentioned. The only other possibility besides Herculean Harrek would be for him to be bribed to quit Sartar. Doesn't sound like Harrek, does it?
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #161
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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