Gloranthan Night:
Of peripheral interest perhaps: Strangers in Prax (p76) describes the
interesting effects of Dusk, when for a moment invisible things become
visible (including spirits, sorcery, the past....). Could be worth reading.
The God Learner Secret:
A possible reward for browsing the Web: one of the things I found was what
claimed to be the Secret. I'm not saying where, or what (the owner of the
page is a Digest contributor anyway), but I reckon it _could_ be the real
Secret. Makes sense to me, anyway.
Gloranthan Smiths:
An old White Dwarf, of which I now possess only one page, contained the cult
of Knerain, Armourer and weaponsmith of the Gods, the guy who forged Death.
Author was Mark Fletcher. Sorry, I don't know which WD it was: the cult is
written for RQ2 but RQ3 is mentioned, which may help date it. No real idea
is given of how the cult fits into the different areas of Glorantha, and I
don't know how it would fit into the "modern" Glorantha, but could be worth
a look if you can find it.
Small cults:
the way I play it is that on the High Holy Day of each cult there is a
general public festival, and the whole population of the area (I was
thinking of cities, but it still applies at the clan level) become lay
members for the day. Some have festivals on days other than the HHD, too:
any excuse..!
There are lots of fun festival formats you can borrow from the RW: frex a
German city somewhere where the brewers have an annual race around the city
perimeter, rolling giant decorated barrels of beer. Inora might have a
snowman-building contest, Voria would have a flower and pet show, Makstakos
would have races (chariot races?)... I'm sure we can all think of more to
add to the list. My version of Pavis has some sort of festival going on
almost every day, but that's an extreme case.
Healing spells:
a new thread!
A few thoughts on healing spells and how they "really" work: I was trying to
figure out what they look and feel like to cast and to receive, and ended up
having to go back to first principles.
What I ended up with does impose some limits on the use of healing magic that don't seem to be in the rules, but that I think probably should be: at least, they're there IMG.
We are told (somewhere!) that spirit magic counts as "touch" as long as you
are in contact with the "aura" of the patient: so you can cast through
clothing. This implies to me:
1) that there is such a thing as an aura(!): no idea yet quite what it is though
2) that spirit healing at least operates by manipulating the "aura".
My next assumption is that "aura" =!= "spirit" - that would be too simplistic, and isn't how I understand the term. A sort of other-plane representation of your spirit, yes, but not the same thing. (Yes, I have tried reading a few books on the subject: if anyone finds one that makes sense, please let me know).
Stage one of the mechanics would then be that when you are injured, the injury is initially only to the body and not to the aura. So the physical arm has a cut in it, but the aura-arm doesn't. The spirit magic Heal spell persuades the body to get back in line with the aura, a little at a time.
Stage two is that in the case of either very serious injury ("maiming") or an injury that has been neglected for too long, the aura starts to "forget" what the healthy body should be like. So the spirit magic Heal can only improve things to the state the aura is now in. That very nasty spell Seal Wound that prevents magical healing deliberately injures the aura as well as the body, causing this effect.
Divine magic should work at a deeper level, although Heal Body seems to have the same limitations in the rules as Heal: it restores the whole body to the same state as the aura, instantly.
Heal Wound is definitely at a deeper level. I would say it restores the body to the same state as the _soul_ (possibly the wrong word?), hence no time limits and the ability to restore a severed limb (as long as said limb is still in a healthy state, anyway). I think there is a connection that works long-term, as I've heard of cases of RW people with missing limbs feeling sensation in them years after they've been removed. Regrow Limb would work the same sort of way.
The final really nasty case is when the injury is at this deeper level as well, and the whole entity at all levels is convinced that having bits of them mangled is just the natural way to be. I'd guess this is what happens with those unhealable wounds one can get on Heroquest.
A few bits of this theory need clearing up:
1) how does natural healing work, esp. in cases of Seal Wound?
2) what do I mean by "aura", "soul" etc. anyway? My vague feeling is that
aura is to soul as magic points are to POW, and neither are the same as the
thing called "spirit" that survives after death, but I could do with some
help here.
3) what about the chaps who run Gimpy's? Unless they all went heroquesting
(possible), how did they get to the point that Regrow Limb won't work?
4) in the RW(?) books I've read, it's implied that seeing an aura is a trick
that most people can learn with a bit of practise: you can tell things from
the colour, they say. Does this translate to Glorantha? Is it like shamans
seeing the spirit plane, or is it a lesser version of the ability? Or is it
one of the existing spells: Soul Sight?
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* Jane Williams * The answer to any either/or question is "yes" *
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