>>But the inactive disease spirits can still infect others, shed minor
>>spirits to infect places, etc. Worship of Malia protects only the
>>worshipper and so doesn't equate to a cure.
>
>This has not been stated in da roolz and the only justification for the
>interpretation that inactive disease spirits do infect others was that
>it was in Malia's 'nature' to do so.
Much as I hate to argue with my betters :-)
(LoT, p29, 2nd column)
[Involuntary Initiation]...Once successful, the initiate no longer suffers aditional losses from the disease... The Spirit of Disease possessing him is not exorcised from his body, although it becomes inactive. The new initiate becomes a carrier of the disease, as described in Disease in Glorantha, pp.36-37.
(LoT, p36, bottom of 2nd column)
Carrying Disease
When a subject is possessed by a Disease Spirit he becomes a
carrier of the disease. This is true even when the subject cannot be
affected by the spirit... As the disease progresses, the Disease Spirit
spawns Infection Spirits as a by-product, and people coming in contact with
the diseased subject are thus exposed to infectious forms of the disease.
Please note: this is from the 'rules' section rather than the 'cult' section, so no accusations of 'cultural bias' :-)
>If an inactive disease spirit still infects others than there would be
>little difference between this status and that of an involunatary Malian
>initiate.
There *is* little difference in status between the two. An involuntary initiate wishes merely to be spared the ravages of a disease which has infected them, a voluntary initiate is one who actively partakes of the cult, and who is made the carrier of a disease if not already infected. Note that both types of initiate may attempt DI from Malia to gain protection from another disease, but they still become carriers of that disease.
> Furthermore the information that the diseases that are most
>likely to turn inactive are found in marshy areas seems to me to indicate
>that a parallel with the RW disease Malaria is being sought.
This is an optional rule about disease spirits in general becoming inactive, with a specific example of a Wasting Disease which rarely becomes inactive *except* in certain marshy regions where inactive forms are quite common. I agree that this is an attempt parallel with malaria, but only to give an example to the GM of the kind of modifications to make - I would personally have a mythical rather than geographical reason, such as:
"Your great Aunt once quested for protection against this spirit and now all her off-spring are guarded, but when the sweats come you mustn't travel over the ridge for the Vingiti clan did not have such an illustrious hearth-mother".
Lunar/Disease cyclic parallels
- ------------------------------
Was this so stupid it wasn't worth replying to? Was the great
Esrolian debate so interesting that it was cast by the wayside? I thought
it was a cracking idea...
And in case it needs stating, the above was all IMHO, except for quotes which were from Very Important People (and thus worth as much as Greg's quotes ever are).
Nigel
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