Shamans/Hazia/Vadeli/Continents/

From: SimonPhipp_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 20:13:26 -0400


Martin Kelly asked

>.... what if the shaman
>follows a tradition that is an integral part of the pantheon of the
>initiating god? Why can't a Kolating shaman be an initiate of Orlanth, or
>Storm Bull?

In Standard RuneQuest, you cannot be a Shaman and a Priest or Sorcerer. In Gloranthan RuenQuest you can. Trolls are Shamans and Priests of Kyger Litor, in fact Mistress Race Trolls can be Shamans, Priests and Sorcerers of Arkat. Waha Shamans are Priests and so on. Most Shamanic Priesthoods allow their priests to join associate cults and become initiates or Priests of those cults. Queens of Bagog can be Shamans and Rune Lords, so a Shaman can be many different things.

If you think it is OK, then allow it in your campaign and forget what other people may think.


On the subject of Hazia in the Lunar Empire:

The Lunars would not necessarily want to ban Hazia use in the Empire as their philosophy is one of personal freedom. However, imagine what the effects of Hazia use would have on the authoritarian Dara Happans or Solar Cults in general. Hazia use promotes laziness which is against the work-ethic. It is anti-social and disrupts good order as people tend to devote their energies to getting more Hazia rather than supporting the state. As the Solar peoples are generally very straight-laced, I can't imagine them being in favour of Hazia use (with the exception of the Lodrili who are just a bunch of ignorant peasants anyway).

Thus, the production and use of Hazia is banned in Sun County (Solar, uptight, moral) and condoned by the Lunars. As most of the Hazia in Prax is grown in Sun County, it has to be smuggled out to users in the Empire. Uniquely, this is an example where the drug is illegal in the place where it is grown and legal in its marketplace, rather than in the Real World where the opposite is often the case.


What is the problem with descriptions of Vadeli sexual habits? Are we saying that only certain views should be expressed on the Digest? If so, where are the guidelines? Are we saying that only "mature" or "adult" material should be on the Digest (assuming that those descriptions are "adolescent" or "immature") if so, why are many of the players of RuneQuest still playing, given that many are nearing thirty or well over the edge of thirty and that Roleplaying is very much an adolescent hobby?

If people cannot make the distinction betwen "real life" and "pretend" then they have a problem.

Personally, I was not shocked, nauseated or disgusted by the Vadeli descriptions, I merely found some of them unsatisfactory for various reasons. Glorantha has the Bloody Tusk, the Cannibal Cult, the Troll Ritual of Rebirth where every organ is torn out of the body and bones are broken while the person is still alive, broo reproduction - or is being gang-raped by broos not thought of as gross? The Vadeli descriptions are merely extensions of the same theme.

I am more annoyed by the incresing frequency of personal comments/attacks on people on the Digest than the content of the articles, this I find offensive.

One of the strengths of Glorantha is that is a broad camp and can accomodate many styles of play, from the nicest roleplaying to the experience of disgusting rites and events. All should be encouraged.


Paul Stolar asks:

> In Glorantha, I believe that the earth floats on water. Does that mean that
rocks will
> float on water? Do only "living rocks" float? Are there different laws for
continents
> and stones?

As far as I know, the whole of Glorantha floats on water, but the ground goes all the way down to The Underworld (Ga's body) to Hell. There are areas (Oceans) where the waters mix with Primal Ocean and are bottomless (Oceans) but even these reach Hell in the end. The continents do not float on water, I think, but sit on Hell in some strange way. Of course, Hell floats on the Primal Ocean (Srimak, if my memory serves me correctly) as does everything else.

Rocks do not float on water. Continents float on water because Earth came from Water, or rather GATA came from ZARAMAKA. Similarly, AETHER floats on GATA and UMATH had to force his way into the schema as he did not have a place. (Sorry to the Unix people who get a headache when looking at capital letters).

On the subject of civilisations living beneath the continents - perhaps. Maybe there are cilivisations living on the outside edge of the Sky Dome as well, but who is ever going to see them? Unless your players are going to travel beneath the Sea and go beneath the continents, who cares? Of course, if they want to do this, then invent civilisations of sea trolls and so on.


End of Glorantha Digest V3 #105


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