>In Glorantha, is a players spirit the same as her soul?
Er, good question! In glorantha, it depends on who you ask. Objectively, I'd say that the Soul is different from the Spirit (POW) and is not represented by RQ mechanics.
>If they are different, do characters exist concurrently on the physical
>plane (body and soul) and the spirit plane (in spirit form)?
A character has no intrinsic presence on the Other Side (ie spirit world, god plane etc). He or she can make impressions on the Other Side by the force of her or his spirit (with certain techniques and locations modifying this).
>When someone dies her soul goes to the place prepared by her god. Does
>the spirit also make that journey?
I'll define the spirit as POW. The descriptions that follow are objectified and the cultures concerned would not use such terms.
BRITHINI: The mind vanishes and the spirit decomposes. There are no such thing as Souls.
DORADDI: The mind, soul (called spirit in 'What the chieftain says' GoG) and spirit (called breath in GoG) go to the Breath World. Eventually the spirit dies and the mind and Soul goes to Pamalt's Council, perhaps to return one day (although ignorant of previous existance).
ESROLIA: The Mind disappears and the Spirit goes to the Halls of Silence, perhaps to return one day. The Soul and Spirit are the same thing.
LUNAR: If Illuminated, the Soul is freed from the Material World and returns to the place from Whence It Came. Otherwise it is still a prisoner.
HRESTOLI: The spirit decomposes and the Soul goes to Solace. The Mind is a material manifestation of the Soul and accompanies it into Solace.
MOSTALI: The Mind disappears, the Spirit decomposes into the Energy Fields of Ty Kora Tek and the Soul never was.
KRALORI: If sufficiently enlightened, the Mind and Soul go to the Palace of Excellent Reward to await the Dragon Emperor. If not, the Mind vanishes and the Soul returns to the Material World. The spirit will decompose once the Emperor has passed on.
ROKARI: If you have been good, the Spirit decomposes and the Soul goes to Solace. If you have been bad, your soul is entrapped in the Mundane World and the Soul and Spirit go to Hell to suffer Unending Torment. The Mind is a material manifestation of the Soul.
ORLANTHI: The Mind and Spirit go to the God's Afterlife. The Soul and the Spirit are the same thing.
SOLAR: The Mind, being a luminous bird, flies up to Heaven to rejoin Dayzatar. The Spirit decomposes and the Soul goes to the Underworld, perhaps to return one day.
Cultures that accept a division between the mind and soul after death may have some paths that allows one to remember previous lives. I'd make this a variant of ancestor worship.
>The reason why I ask this is because I am wondering how spirits would
>feel about being summoned. Grandfather Jed might not like to be hauled
>from the promised land (assuming that it is a nice place) if his spirit
>resides there. He would probably have to be dragged kicking and
>screaming to the mundane plane. If his spirit is drifting in the spirit
>plane he might not view it as a nuisance.
Again it depends on where you come from. Most ancestral cults have their ancestors roam a portion of the spirit plane and they don't have any special objections to be summoned. Some cultures require the spirits to be exposed to some sunstance (ie fresh blood, sunlight) before the spirits can recover their minds.
Scott Knowles:
>I have to agree here. I have used the elemental dominance to ccome to
>similiar effects. I had heard of something like that in one of the books, but
>felt like it was to RW'ish to use. This is Glorantha and a solstice does not
>feel right. Yelm goes at the same rate across the sky, as he is stuck in
>Time's influence.
Firstly merely because there are solstices does not mean that Yelm is of the same strength in the summer and in the winter - he is still brighter in the summer than he is in the winter. And Orlanth is stuck in time's influence too but seems to have variable effects in the seasons (cf Elder Secrets), so why not Yelm?
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