> Witches, who turned to magic because they were beyond
>the pale of normal society, had familiar spirits and behaved like nothing
>so much as bad shamans.
Yeah, well, one must be careful to distinguish between propaganda about witches (both pro and con) and real historical witches (about whom we know almost nothing except through propaganda). So medieval European parallels are of limited value. I think more of ancient Europe and the mid-east, and for comparison Africa and the Far East, when thinking of independent magicians.
BTW, where is the reference to witches in the magic book?
For example, shamans in Korea have a historical tradition which occasionally erupts into new cults (like the Unification Church), but for the most part shamans are not part of any cult. They get paid entirely for services rendered, unlike the Buddhist or the Christian priests who get regular donations. They may be part-time, pursuing another career to make ends meet. Although they may be "called" by the spirits, shamanism tends to run in families and shamans often apprentice themselves after their call. They are not ostracized, are not considered "evil," and don't fill the same social niche as a priest. Yet they are important members of the social tapestry and the spiritual ecology.
And I don't buy the argument that Glorantha is different from Earth because magic is "real" in Glorantha. Magic may be more flash-bang in Glorantha, but magic here works. Bone-pointing kills, if you're an Australian aborigine. If you're still trapped in a scientific worldview, look at it this way: magic "works" through manipulating the psychology of the victim and through affecting the social matrix in which the victim lives. Given that, and given that religions on Earth do magic, there STILL are independent magicians, for whatever reason.
So here's my proposal for witches a/k/a bush-witches a/k/a wise women a/k/a various other titles. These are men and women who know something that the general public doesn't know. It may be a single spirit magic spell that's not on Zzabur's list. It may be a complex of techniques for creating complex woven magic. Witches' power ranges from being no more than an average person's to being as great as an adept wizard. Witches' traditions were not shoe-horned into the spirit/divine/sorcery trichotomy of the God Learners.
In the game, witches are a GM technique for giving an NPC any magical power that the GM wants the NPC to have. Grin quietly when your players sputter "but she couldn't know how to do THAT!" I won't describe them within the system, for reasons that shall be explained shortly.
In Glorantha as literary reality, witches are a means to create mystery, drive plots, and develop characterizations. They are one technique for jumping out of the RQ system.
In Gloranthan reality, witches are part of the spiritual ecology, as ineradicable as weeds. They exist because people are likely to seek out and hold onto secrets, and to pass these secrets on within families, and because other people are willing to part with things of value for their services.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #330
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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