> For one thing, there's not nearly enough divination in Glorantha. Our
> world is full of diviners. In the U.S., you can't drive down the road
> without seeing a palmist's office. To paraphrase O'Keefe (I don't have
> the book handy), the palmist is not there to amuse tourists; she is a
> diviner practicing an art with its roots in the Neolithic. Where are
> all the diviners of Glorantha? Divination is a 1 point divine spell,
> obviously not suited to the high volume practice a diviner needs. I'd
> peg the Divination spell as being the most reliable, flexible, and
> prestigious form of divination, but hardly the only one.
IMO the most common divination spell would be Second Sight, or Mystic Vision. A lot of divinination is not so much concerned with the future of the examined customer as with his or her present problems, and to view the aura of a customer (be it through a mumbled spell or with the help of devices like a crystal ball) can give the experienced diviner clues about the nature of these problems.
Another possibility for "Low Magic" divination spells could be variants of Detect or Sense spells, aimed at the emotions and memory of the divinee.
> I suggest that independent magicians are all around in Glorantha. These
> are the people who perform magic for a fee or a favor, or for a little
> local prestige.
I agree with most of this. Note that these independent magicians are independent of their customers except in the economical sense (they make a living out of the fees they charge, or in case of beggars out of the protection fee paid by threatened people not wanting to draw bad luck), but not necessarily independent from other agencies.
An independent sorcerer/magician in Ralios may well be a Lunar priest on missionary duty, without a defined flock to provide him a shrine's benefits, but with the backing of his faraway cult. Just for one example.
> I'm not suggesting that "independent magician" is a good template for
> player characters,
This I disagree with,
> at least for beginning players.
but this amendment makes sense. An independent magician may be as much a part of the society around him as the average cult member, but it takes a lot more knowledge about the society to act as an outsider member familiar with the dos and don'ts than just one out of the many mainstream characters with only a few personality traits.
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