So what? Firstly a spirit roaming the spirit plane is going to get munched unless the God powers it up against all the nasty things out there. Just read about how difficult it is to go "across country" from Mirin's Cross to Pavis in SiP. Gods may have legions (depending on your belief in Gods) but they don't have legions of helpers flying around the spirit plane (although IMHO they do have some).
But it dosen't really matter *how* many friends on the spirit/god/hero/slippery dip plane they have since they do not interact (often) with the everyday people on the normal plane. The interactions from the God's side happen in worship ceremonies, when an *important* message is needed (eg. the dream in Sun County), and when a worshipper has been naughty (retribution). That's the only times (IMHO). A god can't afford to send a spirit to talk to you about the last time you had lamb chops to find the state of your sheep and land.
No spirit can "listen" to someone not on the spirit plane. So, unless the person is a shaman, an interation of that kind cannot happen - for the same reason a God can't tell what you're thinking, a spirit can't eavesdrop on either your conversation or your mind. Note that an allied spirit is no different and, unless discorporate, has no more link to the spirit plane than any other being on Glorantha (excepting undead of course :-)
> Remember also that most Priests have allied spirits which are in a
> permanent Mindlink. These spirits may also communicate (Mindlink again?)
> with their god on a regular basis. Woe betide the Priest who lies to his
> god while his ally is listening. Of course, particularly corrupt Priests
> may be able to corrupt their ally....
Tosh. How can the spirit communicate? Of course, they could do a ceremony which connects them to the god but their friend and ally may just suspect something when they start a ceremony... A spirit which talks to a god does it through the same means as anyone else - they either do it through a ceremony, through speaking a language (my theory), or by finding the God or representative and telling them to pass a message on (dodgy unless the message is vital since God's reps are just as likely to forget something as I am).
Woe betide the spirit who grouses on their illuminated orlanthi priest - the spirit is *bound* until the character or God removes that binding. And the character _can_ be listening to everything the spirit "says" to God...
Robert
(if this is boring any/everyone we can take it off the list...)
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #441
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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