More on magic

From: Michael C. Morrison 8-543-4706 <mmorrison_at_VNET.IBM.COM>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 13:41:54 PDT


Pam says in 481:
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>SOME of Genertela is a violent place. You ignore the vast peaceful
>populations of Seshnela, central Peloria, Backwater Esrolia, and Kralorela.

Others have already commented on this, and I agree that there are probably precious few areas in Genertela that are truly peaceful. :(

>If you're playing that all spells are available to everyone - perhaps. But
>farmers in Glorantha likely do what farmers everywhere do when faced with
>invading armies - give up.

I play RQ2, so spells are available to everyone, modified by cult restrictions. But by available, I mean that they can go into town and find a teacher fairly easily for most spells. Ones that are taught only to lay or initiates of a particular cult are harder to come by, unless you live near a good sized temple (or shrine).

I agree that possibly peasants would surrender in the face of a large invading force, like the Lunars and maybe even the KoW. But I think farmers also need magical assistance fighting off the smaller invaders, like trolls, or broo. Maybe the broo are like foxes raiding the chicken coop (as Peter suggests in 485), but farmers will still defend their farms because they are their livelihood. But I must also plead ignorance (more or less) about how common this kind of raiding is outside Sartar or Prax.

Pam also suggests a former farmer adventurer-type should have some actual farming skills, and I agree! The previous experience given in the optional rules for RQ2 clearly lack these kinds of skills. I'll have to add some of these skills in next time ...

> Woe to the
>wandering sword-slinger who knows only combat magic, because there's more to
>life in Glorantha than combat!

Agreed! This digest proves it over and over again ...

Peter in 486:
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>Most of the farmer/warriors aren't very good IMO. If they're too poor to
>afford decent weaponry, I doubt they can afford fancy spells.

I agree that most farmer-types are relatively poor, and certainly don't have the time to do much training. I also agree that fancy spells are not very likely, but I leave the possibility open that a family or maybe a group of families might pool their resources for someone among them to learn a fancy spell. And I still think that even the poor can scrape the money and time together to buy magic that could save their lives or their farms -- not much perhaps, but I think it'd be a fairly high priority, especially if the King or a large town is far away ...

OTOH, I do agree that these peasant farmer-types are fairly useless for a true military campaign -- these guys can defend Ok, but forget offense.

Jeff in 488:
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> As I see it, magic in Glorantha is so deeply intertwined with society
> and
> cultural world-view that it is almost pointless to try and separate the two.
> A better
> question might be: do the farmers in Culture X have a significant violent/
> combat role? With most of the Theyalan or Orlanthi cultures, this is probabl
> hence
> they have "combat magic". With other cultures (say the Westerners) this is
> not the case. Not much of an answer, is it?

Actually, I think it's a good answer. I think what you're asking for is an understanding of the kinds of magic a _society_ uses. We already know quite a bit about the kinds of magic a _cult_ uses, but a society is made up of many different (and possibly, conflicting) cults, and anyway, the sum of the cults does not totally define the society. So, we must speak of Orlanthi in Dragon Pass, as opposed to Orlanthi in Risklands, or Heortland, or the Worlathi in Imther. PrimaryCult+location = society (sort of, at least in a crude way).

What you think of as "not much of an answer" may prove to be the start of a new way of understanding Glorantha and RuneQuest. I'll think more on't; anyone with thoughts on how to build this understanding?

Michael

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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #496


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