Death of the gods? / brainy bunnies

From: Simon D. Hibbs <S.Hibbs_at_fcrd.gov.uk>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 11:48:59 +0000 (GMT)


V.S. Greene :

> My assumption was that magic is somewhat of an internal thing; you power
>it and impose your will upon the universe by the force of your spritual
>energy (something like that). ....

That's a very generalised statement. In Glorantha there are many different forms and experiences of magic, some of which may work in the way you describe, but many of which don't.

> ....Rune magic is supposedly powered by the god; ...

You see what I mean? Rune magic is gained through personal contact and identification with divine powers.

> .....you might be able to use the rune spell once after the god is dead
>but you couldn't get it back. Spirit magic, well, it depends on if
>spirits remain to teach it. People wouldn't lose their spirit magic
>spells, but they couldn't learn new ones. It'd likely still be around
>though as I doubt that the death of the gods would kill all the spirits.

If you killed all the animals, what would happen to the fleas? The 'death of the gods' could mean a lot of things. IMHO it is most likely a metaphor for a humakt-style severing of all contact between humanity and the otherworld.

> Still, that's my guesses; I'm not quite sure what you mean by "The
>Otherworld" or why it would necessarily be empty.

The 'spirit plane', the 'heroplane', etc. The realm of the invisible, spiritual and divine.

Your interpretation of what is meant by 'the death of the gods' seems very literal and limited in scope. I thnik it probably has a much broader meaning.

 Nick Brooke :

>So I'll stick by my guns on this: many cults have access to a power which
>is (used on their sacred animals) similar to -- and, indeed, more
>effective than -- the Waha cult rune spell of Release Intelligence.

Fair point. Yes, I was thinking more of the RQ2 aproach to Allied Spirits. Ultimately the game mechanics are a red herring.

For example, a shaman's fetch, a priest's allied spirit and a sorcerer's familiar all fulfill the same spiritual and magical role, yet the game mechanics are quite different. The respective magical practicioners would likely describe their relationships using very different terms and their experiences of it differ greatly. Nevertheless, it's obvious that at some level they are similar in nature, but manifest it differently.

Simon


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