IFWW, hazia

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 02:18:17 +0800

        On my reading of King of Sartar, IFWW and the LBQ occur mythologically at much the same time (and so could be celebrated with the same ceremony). The Greater Darkness (called the PreDark in KOS for some reason) begins with the appearance of Chaos and the loss of Ernalda, then there is the Stormfall battle at which Orlanth realises chaos cannot be defeated by warfare, then he leaves on the LBQ. While he is away there is a desperate struggle by humanity to survive, which is the IFWW - during which it is not Orlanth who fights alongside them (AFAIK there is no reference to Orlanth fighting in IFWW) but heroes like Votank and Heort (and deities like Elmal and Babeester Gor).

        And IFWW is not really Universal. GOG says universal mystery cults - - but lots of cults aren't mystery cults in this sense. Probably the recently discussed sense of mystery cults as cults of an individual sense of salvation, rather than large cultural religions, is just what is relevent here. The Yelm religion, for example, has no direct analogue to IFWW - probably precisely because to the Yelm religion the mystic struggle of individuals to survive is less important than the loss and restoration of the proper ruler of the world, Yelm, and the accompanying loss and restoration of Justice (in the person of a proper Emperor). Sure, everyone remembers the Great Darkness as a horrible time with a desperate struggle for life. But not everone remembers this as a horrible battle against chaos, and not everyone acknowledges the sense of universal cooperation and personal salvation normally associated with it either.

>I
>doubt the Brithini follow it.

        Actually, I think Zzabur is specifically one of those mentioned as participating in Cults of Terror (he shows Kygor Litor how to enchant away the gorp), so maybe they do. But I'm sure lots of other folk don't.

        Personally, I agree that the Sacred Time rituals are about the LBQ - - I see the Sacred Time rituals as being more of a pantheon thing rather than a uniquely Orlanth thing, whereas the HHD of Orlanth is more about Orlanth rather than the Lightbringers as a whole. The IFWW rituals are part of it (they've got two whole weeks, they can fit in a lot of rituals), but the cults other than the Lightbringers dominate those.

hazia
>Joerg claims Hazia is legal in the Lunar Empire.

        I'm with David - source? Is this Gregs current opinion? I tend to feel that hazia is illegal, or at least the trade is - otherwise lots of Prax based plots about the suppression of the trade don't make a lot of sense. I agree that the Lunar empire probably allows the use of many other weird mind-bending drugs, so I'm not sure why they would discourage hazia though. A good question. Unfortunately, its such a good plot hook (and a very important one in my game) that I probably should find a reason.

        The hazia written up in the Sun County rules is VERY physically debilitating if you go into withdrawal - which might explain why its discouraged by the Lunars, if lots of soldiers become debilitated on campaign because of its use (incidentally, also a reason why its encouraged by the Orlanthi in my game...hmmmm). We play it as a lot less severe normally, though - we play it as a common drug among certain tribes (Morokanth, as per Sandy's recent suggestion, and Basmoli, to further amusing rastafarian comparisons, at least), which would be pretty unlikely if it was that debilitating. Maybe you need to have a system accustomed to it since childhood, or similarly through long use?

>You seem to think that the LBQ (I took ages to work this acronym out when I
>first joined the Digest - why can't people use English rather than stupid
>acronyms/abbreviations?)

        Ummm..... because we are lazy. Time to update the FAQ, though, and then make sure its well advertised. I've noticed its a bit out of date. I'll volunteer to update it, if no one else feels a desperate urge.

        David


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