Independant Magicians et al

From: Dane 'Danger' Johnson <dane_at_frame.com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 1996 19:12:46 -0800


I've been lurking here for a month or two, but I've been silent because my Gloranthan Lore skill is probably only around 18% or so. However, Martin/Argrath has been discussing what he calls Independant Magicians in the last few digests and it's a topic I think I can discuss without getting Gregged (or Petered or Lorened or Sandied, or whatever) too badly :)

Martin's main point seems to be that Gloranthan communities must (that would, presumably, be the Orlanthi 'must', ie, most probably) have some workers of magic who are not the usual cult initiates/priests and spirit magicians of local spirit cults.

These people would be able to cast charms for you, forecast your future, and cast curses and whatnot on your troublesome neighbors.

He argues that a) a local intiate or priest would not be willing to curse one member of his 'flock' for another, b) on Earth you can't swing a dead cat without hitting four or five palm-readers or Psychic Friends, and c) there are some magics which 'need' to be done but which 'don't require' a priest or cult shaman.

Laying aside the question of whether it's reasonable to argue that something should be true on Glorantha because it's true on Earth, the rest of Martin's arguments can be answered, I think, as follows.

First and foremost, just about everybody can cast magic in Glorantha. A lot of the minor "mischief" magic can probably be handled either by yourself or your family or your friends. The lack of minor divination (ie, tea reading) or 'curdle milk' spells in RuneQuest doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist in Glorantha.

Second, most regions of Glorantha have a mix of cultural influences. Sartar has a large number of Orlanthi, but there is also a large contingent of Lunars. In these regions, you can get the "other guys" (Evil or not) to cast spells on your neighbors, if they have the appropriate disposition.

Thirdly, there are always the wandering 'Adventurers' or Evil Sorcerers to do this sort of thing for you.

Fourthly, local Trickster cultists are going to be more than happy to cause whatever trouble you might be willing to pay for and/or suggest, not to mention being perfectly happy to lie to you about your future. :)

I think the important thing here isn't "who fulfills the role of independant magician", though. I think the important question is, "what do you mean by independant magician"?

In the examples Martin brought up (that I can remember) he suggested cursing your neighbor, getting your palm read, or getting a love charm as the sorts of things an independant magician would do. How much cursing of your neighbor do you really need? In a small village of 100 people or so is there enough work for even a single independant worker of magic who curses people's cows, spreads bad luck, or makes a healing poultice? I'm not sure there is. Especially not when there's an initiate or priest who can knit bones back together and your grandmother can heal one point wounds (heal) and your dad can kill rats by thinking at them (disruption).

Do you need a minor oracle when you can go and ask the Lankor Mhy (or whomever is in charge of divination) priest/intiate? There are a lot of people on modern Earth who will tell you your future (by phone yet!), but there is also a suspcious lack of nationwide organized religions that can actually fortell the future. The same is not true on Glorantha.

I think what you really want is an expansion of the Spirit magic spells available to include some more of the sorts of magic that "Typical Fantasy" stories attribute to wandering gypsies or old hags or malicious dwarfs who can spin straw into gold. This isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it's also not necessarily going to mesh with established Gloranthan Dogma (at this point I expect MGF will get invoked :)

Besides, in a magic-rich environment like Glorantha too much of this curse your neighbor and love charm kind of thing and the local constabulary is going to cast a divination of their own to find out who is causing all the trouble.

Dane


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