Yara Aranis, Spell Matrices, Law Rune in the Sky

From: Stephen P Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 12:49:12 EST

Hasni Mubarak <richo_at_epix.net>
Computer Program
>
>Wait, I _do_ still have a copy. It was by Alan LaVergne, it was
copyright
>1986 and 1987, and it appears to be for RQ3!
>
>Hm, sure wish I had some idea how to contact him. I'd be more than
>happy to playtest it for him.... ;-)
>

I may still have an address for him from a few years ago, and so could contact him if people think it is worth doing. If that address don't work, David Hall might be able to get hold of him. If _all_ else fails, Chaosium may have his address, and might be willing to forward something to him.

But I don't want to do this unless enough people think it is worthwhile - -- anyone else interested?

>
>From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
>Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 14:51:42 +1200
>Subject: insanity roolz
>
>ObAnotherInssight:
>
>It's been pointed out that Yara Aranis is also known as the
>Six-armed Goddess of Saird even though she comes from further
>north.
>
>I've just remembered that Argrath established a particular
>Temple in Saird. It's the Temple of the Reaching Storm.
>Rather curious considering that Yara Aranis is the Goddess
>of the Reaching Moon....
>

I assume the two references are related to each other.

As I see it, there are a few possibilities.

1. Argrath's founding of his temple could have "summoned" her. But I don't think she would be described as "The Six-Armed Goddess of Saird".
2. Yara Aranis is _not_ native to where the Lunar histories say she is. This would mean that she is _not_ the Red Emperor's daughter. Now, if we postulate that she was a native goddess in the Saird area, and the Red Emperor transplanted her cult into the nomad-infested area further north, this _might_ satisfy the histories.
3. Yara Aranis _is_ native to where the histories say she is. But, the Red Emperor had to go somewhere else (i.e., Hell) to mate with her mother. So, Yara Aranis' _mother_ may be the Six Armed Goddess of Saird, since that goddess is never _said_ to be Yara Aranis (though it is strongly implied, from her appearance and her hatred of Sheng Seleris). Now, in Dara Happan religious philosophy, it is possible to view Hell as lying to the SOUTH of Dara Happa, since that is where all the bad gods are always banished to. But, the GodsWall sort of makes it clear that the West is Hell (description of Yelm, where the one ray of light blessing the "Low 25" is the ray blessing the deities of the South). So this idea may not work.

>

Hasni Mubarak <richo_at_epix.net>
Truestone
>
>Hey, regarding truestone. Say I screwed up and accidently told PC's
that a
>non-renewable spell was stored in an object. Is it possible that it is
REALLY >stored in truestone?
>

Sure. If all else fails, depending on what the item is, have a trustone hidden inside it. Seems to me that's the best way to safeguard truestone anyways -- make a ring or something, and affix a truestone onto the inside of the item. Leave just a small enough hole for contact with the stone.

Alternately, a long time ago I decided that magicians should be able to store single uses of spells into objects. You could, for example, cast Bladesharp 4 onto your warrior's sword, which would be activated when he said the proper command word. You don't lose the spell, he doesn't have to learn it. I think this is how shamans give charms to their tribes. I got the idea from Elder Secrets, so it is a Gloranthan concept according to that project. Elder Races Book, Adventures, description of the elf adventure.

Currently, I view this ritual as consisting of three spells. One, Store Sorcery (stolen from the Mostali) allows a sorcerer to store a use of a spell. Create Charm has two versions. A Spirit Magic version is available commonly to shamans. A Divine Magic version is available to all cults with access to Spellteaching.

Currently, I do NOT have a Divine Magic version, since I think this is best left up to the Issaries priests. But such a ritual spell would be easy to make, as long as there were balances in place to keep it from being too powerful.

I will post the spell descriptions if you like.

>What happens if a one-use spell, stored in truestone, is cast? Does it
>go away for ever?
> Is it the worlds first renewing one-shot matrix? Is it too gross an
idea to even
>consider?
>

Yes, it goes away forever. Because otherwise, yes, it would be the world's first renewing one-shot matrix, which is too gross an idea to even consider.

>Also, I'm under the impression that when some poor choad (Er, read
>RuneLord of immense
>power) picks up a piece of "blank" truestone, he starts pumping all of
>his spells into
>it and he's more or less back to the magical status of initiate.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

>(Though, he's got one
>heck of a nice matrix that just requires a worship ceremony to
>renew....and comes with
>"Worship and Sanctify His God" built in...
>
>Is this correct, or am I confusing different issues?
>

I don't think this is correct. If the spell is one-use to the Runelord, it is one-use in the truestone, even if he takes it to the temple. And, come to think of it, even if a spell is _reusable_ to someone, the spell put into the truestone is just that one _use_ of the spell -- it does _not_ become reusable. Spell Matrix Enchantment is needed to make a renewable Divine Magic matrix.

Now, according to Elder Secrets (?), the Mostali used to know how to make the spells put into a truestone regenerate. Since they also _used_ to know how to refine truestone into adamant, I would suggest that renewable Divine Magic spells would be a common feature on the rare adamant artifacts which turn up.

>

Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz> Malkioni Astronomy
>
>[Giants]
>

Me>>Gonn Orta. Is he humanoid? Certainly. But is he _only_ humanoid?
>>Certainly not -- soon he will be a big rock.
>
>I always thought that people could still see the original giants
>that make up the Good Giant Mountains with special types of magical
>vision. You might have a case with respect to the Bull-shaped hills
>near the Paps...
>

Yes! I hadn't considered this, but given the tendency of the Praxians to view all of the old gods as giants, it makes sense that Eiritha was originally a giant as well. And, from a giant point of view, it makes sense that the one remaining, original, _native_ Praxian deity is now a range of hills.

        For those that are about to bring up Storm Bull to destroy this theory,
I don't believe he is a native Praxian deity, instead being brought to the Praxians from the Orlanthi, either in the First Age or (for the whiners out there) the Grey Age. Waha also is from the Gray Age.
>
>
>>>Malkion would be one
>>>of the circumpolar stars and probably Arraz. I wonder if they
>>>view the Arraz-Polaris-Ourania as the Law Rune?
>
>As for the other holders of the Celestial Law rune, the only two names
>I can come up with are Zrethus (mentioned in Elder Secrets as being
>another name for Dayzatar) would be the Pole Star and Setum (a Seshnegi
>Sky God in Jonat's Saga). If Zrethius is the Polestar that might
>account for the confusion that the Polestar is thought of as Dayzatar's
Eye.
>

This is excellent for the Malkioni who also believe in these gods, but what about the har-liner Malkioni, who don't? Or do we count these two deities as now "worshiped" as lesser saints? I coudl buy that.

>

Dennis Hoover <dennishoover_at_mindspring.com> Drinking Orlanth

Your discussion was here.

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Dennis, what did you do? I don't know if I'm the only one, but my server won't accept binary data, so I got a bunch of lines of random ASCII characters for the rest of your post. Too long for a digital signature, I think. Did you oops, or have I missed something I would have liked to see?

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

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The Book of Drastic Resolutions
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