>> One big jump we have to make is in our own minds. Some things are "magical"
>> in Glorantha which we would say were psychological or intangible in the
>> real world. For example, ... Demoralising
>> your foes (Big Hralf, one of my favourite Greydog characters, called this
>> spell his "Big Shout", and it worked very nicely),
>Loathe though I am to criticise the senior half of the Wakboth partnership, I
>don't think this is the whole story. Suppose Big Hralf meets some bloke with
>Reflection running. Presumably Hralf shouts so loud he scares himself. I can
>cope with that. But what happens when Hralf's buddy who (not being too quick
>on the uptake) disrupts the same target? We have a spell that has just
>reflected both a blast of magical energy _and_ an attempt at psychological
>imtimidation. If a curious sage was to observe the proceeding with Detect
>Magic running, he would even be able to detect Hralf's self induced funk. So
>while I wouldn't dispute there being a major psychological element here, I
>can't see this as purely psychological.
Pshaw. Big Hralf's Big Shout has *always* worked before. But here's a bloke it doesn't work on -- pretty scary! Hralf can psych himself out. And Hralf's buddy does his wammy and sprains his own wrist doing the mystic gestures.
I think the truth is somewhere in between -- shouting alone doesn't demoralize your opponent, but calmly casting the spell as if pulling the trigger on a crossbow doesn't cut it either.
Robert McArthur wrote
>After all, I can't see L.Mhy/I.Ontor et al not having a large knowledge-base,
>and always wanting more.
In a Lhankor Mhy Divination, you always get an answer (unlike a Humakt Divination, where you'd get "I don't know" a lot). The problem is, Lhankor Mhy knows too much, so the Divination is always full of erudite allusions ("The same answer that Bolgor sought, and could have found on the third fork") and just as likely to be useful.
Doyle Ramos-Tavener wrote
> My first thought while reading
> her was "Oh my God, she is describing Heroquesting." I couldn't bring that
> up in class, of course.
Sure you could. Joseph Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces" is all about the hero quest. And it's even dense enough going that it should be fine in academic circles (though I'll add to the earlier discussion: it's not very relevant to any of the anthropology classes I've ever taken).
His teacher said
> "These constructions may not be real, but it
> doesn't mean they don't have power."
If they have power, they must be real in some sense.
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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #447
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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