I've been listening in on the list for a short while and thought it was time to throw in a few comments on what has been said in the last few digests.
Trent Di Renna said on one-use Rune Magic: <I like what somebody said about the spell "coming back" on holy days, though; <this makes the spell somewhat more useful.
I agree. I think that for initiates a spell that is reusable to a priest becomes 'once a year', ie he gets it back on the High Holy Day. The same would go for Rune Lords, unless he already has a better deal. This makes the High Holy Day more important, too, which is a good thing.
On Barntar:
Barntar the Plow man is, IMO, more of a common peoples' god than Orlanth. Orlanth is the Culture God, God of warriors, chieftains, adventurers etc. Barntar is a God of farmers. In King Of Sartar he is characterised as 'the peaceful farmer-god, backbone of the clan.' So I think that most orlanthi stay-at-home, don't-do-anything-foolish types would be more comfortable with Barntar than they would be with Orlanth. So if people in occupied Sartar were tired of the fighting and only wanted peace then it would not be surprising if they chose to worship Barntar. And he is Orlanth's son after all.
On DI:
This topic has perhaps been reiterated enough, but here we go. IMO, the Gods are not omnipotent, but neither should one forget that even the gods have friends, and that there are many ways of accomplishing a thing. In the teleportation case, I feel that true teleportation is very rare. Wat the gods do is transporting their woorshippers very quickly. A storm god sends a sylph to pick them up and take them someplace, an earth deity opens the ground under them and sends them through the earth, other deities do it in some other way.
The gods are not omnipotent. In WF #12 Greg writes that 'the gods are not omnipotent, omniscent or omni-anything' (I know that it was a while ago and he may have changed his mind since then and we may all ignare it anyway, but it feels right what with the limited magics available to different cults and so on, but I digress.) A deity has its areas of interest and control, but look at the associate cults! CA may not be a movement-style godess at all, but her friends Orlanth, Issaries and Urox all are! So she can probably borrow a sylph or something to get her worshippers out of danger.
What, IMO, should be most important of DIs is style and concept. Who, according to the petitioner, are involved? Does the wish fall within the interests of the deity at all? What is asked for? For the deity has only the information from it's worshippers to go on, and little attention to spare. A god should answer in style, and it should not nessecary be subtle. A DI to Storm Bull should be accompanied by roaring desert storms etc.
(I should propably send this now before I'm unable to stop rambling.)
Jon Thorvaldson
Blodstensv.1
S-75258 Uppsala
Sweden
jon.thorvaldson.4851_at_student.uu.se
------------------------------
Powered by hypermail