>Of course to really be able to evaluate the GLers, I guess we'd need to
>know - who were the God Learners? A cabal of sorcerous mystics and their
>trading house allies or a distinct cultural group [not likely], or a
>confederation of adventuring entreprenuers, conquistadors, and clients
>all dominated by a cabal of mystics and their trading house allies [my
>personal favorite]. This doesn't disclose the GLer secret - simply
>humanize the face of everyone's favorite bugaboo.
I really see the God Learners in Church-like terms. A God-learner was a select member of the highest caste of the Malkioni Church of the time (there were only three: Peasants, Soldiers and Wizards). Most of the members in this caste were members of a God-Learners household. To become a God Learner required a state of awareness that was arrived at through intensive training (think of a university education). Members of the lower castes could be inducted into the Wizards Caste to be a God Learner if they were bright enough. This is only for the core lands of God-Learnerism, the nature of God Learner Rule in occupied lands is something else.
I do not think that the knowlege of RuneQuest Sight or the Forbidden Secret were essential to achieving this awareness - these were something else again and property of the truly select. The Modern Malkioni know (in very general terms) how to attain this awareness, but they also have proofs that it is a Bad Thing.
IMO The chief proof is that God Learnerism causes a psychic Blindness through which the God Learner can be attacked without effective defence. I think this flaw (among others) was discovered in the revival of High Sorcery studies that resulted from the establishment of the Rokari Church in Seshnela. Several spells have been developed since then to take advantage of this but since there are no God Learners to try them out on, they remain in dusty tomes. Many suppose that the Closing also made use of this flaw to confound the God Learners from dispelling it but this is unproven.
All IMO.
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