Ditto. All that follows is true in my glorantha, but not necessarily in official Glorantha.
I prefer the hunter-gatherer's vision of the otherworld to the city-dweller's vision that appears in RQ3.
Three Hard Strikes says:
"There are spirits there in the shape of animals and plants, and ghosts in the shape of people. Colors are bright! Very bright! There are horrid monsters lurking away from where our ancestors live. They want to eat your soul so stay away. Our god lives in the otherworld. There he is a powerful king, or she is a powerful queen, who lives many days travel away in a huge, lushly decorated and richly provendered tent. You must cross a huge chasm and mountain range to reach that land, and the animals there are gigantic and ferocious. The shaman who is called Raven Blood can fly you there if you need to hurry, or if you are afraid of the dangers on the way. But the shaman is dangerous too, so choose wisely. Here our god is all around us, in our land, in the forest, in the animals, and he loves us, just look at all he gives to us. Our god is the land. He supports our feet and our huts, and he feeds us. He tells us what to do and when to do it. Our ancestors who have died still dwell near us, in the otherworld, and they watch over us and protect us. That is why you must take care of their fingerbones, and of the clan shrine."
Raven Blood says:
"What do the ancestors look like? They are brighter than the flowers of the meadow. They are standing on you right now, dancing! Your uncle just stuck his finger down his throat and vomited all over you, you little puke! What do you think about that, you washed out runt? Get me my rotgut! I'm so thirsty I could die, and then who would save your miserable hide?"
Soul Man <A.R.Wilson_at_herts.ac.uk> writes:
> In the "Werewolf" rpg, there is a plane called the near umbra into which
> chacrters can "step sideways". This resembles the normal world except
> that all physical constructs appear in their "true nature" ie forests are
> lush and filled with rich vegetation, and buildings appear to be made of
> living tissue etc. Does this help?
That's how I think the Spirit Plane should appear to hunter-gatherers such as the Praxians and Pentans.
To theists I think the spirit plane appears as a dimmer, less interesting version of the real world.
"The spirit plane is like life, but not as good. However, not far away you can reach the halls of the righteous dead, where our ancestors who were good thinkers spend all their time feasting and frolicking and other F words I can't repeat in this company! Our enemies and those who betrayed us spend their time in another place that we have never seen and will never see if we are lucky, a terrible place where they are punished forever!"
And to civilized westerners:
"The spirit plane is a colorless, odorless, featureless place full of amorphous but useful soul-stuff. The laws of life and magic allow our wizards to draw great power from the spirit plane. That is what it is there for, and also as a final test before we may find Solace. Beyond the spirit plane is the endless source of light and life, and we call that place Solace in Glory. Do not be fooled by the mirages which sometimes appear in the spirit plane. They are only momentary pleasures, distractions which will result only in the eventual dissipation of your soul. You may have to spend a long time in the endlessly boring greyness. You may take thousands of years seeking. But continue. Have strength. Seek Solace in Glory and find your eternal reward in the Creator."
IMO Carmanians see it as an otherworld with powerful ancestors and big game animals, and on the other side of a terrible mountain range, a storm-tossed lake, a river swarming with monsters, a desert of glass a week's travel across, and a chasm which has only one bridge, made of swords, which must be walked across and cannot be flown past, is the land of the gods, and past the land of the gods is the final reward for mortals and gods alike, completion in emptiness, wisdom in the vacuum, Solace.
I have no idea how Kralorelans would see it. Anybody else waxing poetic?
whoah!
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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #440
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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