Shamans vs. Priests

From: Trent Di Renna <ted7846_at_megahertz.njit.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 19:55:59 -0400 (EDT)

Okay, let me jump in here on the shaman debate. The opinion has been expressed that shamans were the first "priests", so to speak, since they could go onto the spirit plane to commune with the gods. Then, acolytes and true priests showed up to take over much of the shamans duties, and shamans were relegated to "backwoods" tribes and other remote positions.

This whole debate is complicated by the fact that the different types of magic tend to blend together, and that shamans sometimes even know a little divine magic. I think it is a question of where the god resides. If the god lives mostly in the Spirit Plane, then it is mostly worshipped by shamans. If it lives in the more "distant" God/Hero Plane, then it is too "far away" for a shaman to commune with, and can only be contacted via the more indirect mode of divine magic.

Actually, I think the _real_ problem is reconciling the RQ3 magic system and the structure of Gloranthan cults, which doesn't always seem to be a perfect match. From what I've seen of the proposed RQ4 draft, it proposed having "schools of magic" which taught some of the available skills, but not all of them; creating diversity by limiting the types of magic that any one player could use. It sounded quite interesting, but now we'll never know. _Sigh_. :-)

Trent Di Renna
ted7846_at_megahertz.njit.edu
http://megahertz.njit.edu/~ted7846

---