>Michael Raaterova about smiths:
>> IMG, they use spells to heat their forge and bless their smithy, but their
>> real magic comes from within. They have discovered the secrets of smithing
>> more or less by Questing, and so their powers to shape metal become innate,
>> and not spells sacrificed for.
>Good. Very good. Note, however, this is how I more and more think of
>MOST cults (especially the small ones, like, say Gustbran, or
>Minlister).
Small cults in general get by thanks to pantheon initiation, making worshippers within the pantheon semi-initiates when they participate in the small cult's ceremonies. The Craft Gods could well be something like the above though, with their magic originating from acquired powers.
>> The Master Smiths (of the Wayland kind) are more likely shacked up in some
>> strange place where only the worthy may enter...
>What do they eat? How do they get it?
>"What is your price, oh Waylandfaistos, to make me the wonderful
>Sword of Lunar-slaying?"
>(thoughtful pause)
>"The skull of a leper broo, a pound of emerald moonstones, a piece of
>Kero Fins placenta..... and then you must vow that your tribe must
>feed me for a year to come, bringing barley and beer and beef, and
>some nice-looking girls who do what I tell them to cook it and mend
>my clothes, and a new boy to sweep the smithy - they can't stand the
>heat of burning bronze as in the Second Age, I tell you. And toss in
>a bag of wheels, as well."
I think you answered you own question very well indeed. I said that Master Smiths were shacked up in _strange_ places, not necessarily isolated ones, so they could belong to a clan or group of people that cared for them and tended their worldy needs.
>Why not create a new and better system?
I start with what i want them to be able to do, and create simple guidelines that adds consistency to their powers. That way i can impose the limitations and possibilities that i find appropriate for their setting and game play MGF. That is a new and better system as i see it.
I agree that the small cults should be more detailed, but that won't happen if you don't do it yourself. I have a slight fetish for gloranthan smiths and consequently have done some thinking about them, most of it presented on the digest. I don't care a lot for the magic of tailors which undoubtedly exists, but someone else may, and it might eventually appear on the digest. That's were the guidelines will come from - so start writing those guidelines, Erik.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #29
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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