answers

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cyllene.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 11:16:17 +0800


>(1) Does any one have any info as to a complete list of Lunar Cults in
>the Lunar Empire? I am especially interested in Lunar Hero Cults,
>various aspects of the 7 mothers and who they were when they were
>mortal, various incarnations of the Red Goddess on Earth/Glorantha
>(Hon-Eel the Artess, Jar-Eel the Razoress, especially her struggles and
>romances with Argrath! etc...)

        Well, a good place to start for a look at the bewildering array of religions that are known to modern Pelorians (most of whom are not Lunars), you could start with my Pelorian Prosopaedia http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/~cake/Pelproso.html Loren's web page also has descriptions of several Lunar cults. I would wait for Tales 16 and Nicks promised article after that for the current word on the specifically Lunar religions, of which there are also quite a substantial array.

>I think it would be inconsistent that Slavery of
>any form would be practiced in Orlanthi culture, as Orlanth is one of
>the penultimate Gods of Freedom and Justice.

	Some people will believe anything!
	Actually, the Sartarites of Dragon Pass are opposed to slavery, but
will capture prisoners and use them as thralls. This isn't the same thing as slavery, of course, being as Orlanth is a god of freedom and all that, but it might look quite a bit like it to an outsider....

        Personally, I believe that the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass have no objection to capturing people and making them work for you, but find that Lunar slavery is much worse morally than their own. I imagine they would say something like Lunars treat slaves as mere things, but they treat thralls as people, and they have a place within Heorts laws just like everyone. Of couse, Lunars may freely mock this obvious barbarian hypocracy. As Nick points out, though, slavery is regarded with greater disdain in heortland.

>(3) Anyone care to take a stab at what the actual game stats may be for
>persons such as Jar-Eel, Argrath or Kallyr, or other Dragon Pass
>notables, in RQ3 terms?

        Full and complete statistics for several notables can be found in Wyrms Footprints.... oh, you wanted RQ3 stats!

        Basically, I would say that the rules do not really allow us to do justice to such people as Jar-Eel, except by making up many arbitrary special abilities that don't really reflect how they really interact. But if you really want stats for them, imagine they have access to absurdly large amounts of divine magic, absurdly large supporting spirits, very high weapon skills (at least 200% or so, some would say much more), and loyal bands of supporters of very high ability (at least Coder level or higher). Improvise from there. I have no interest in creating stats for them until we have some sort of heroquesting rules (ie possibly never), which is the only way to really write them up as they should be.

>What might the sources of Argrath's special
>magic be?

        Well, for a start Argrath might actually be more than one person. There is Argrath White Bull, Argrath the King, Argrath Dragonspear, Argrath of Pavis - some of whom are obviously not the same people.

        But assuming that Argrath Dragonspear aka Garrath Sharpsword is the same person who becomes Argrath the High King... his main source of special magics (besides a great mastery of traditional Orlanthi magic) appears to be access to draconic secrets from somewhere, probably from old EWF sources. He also has a special relationship with the elder giants, which seems to come from a combination of heroquesting, gratitude for saving the cradle, and personal friendship (he shares a bottle of wine with Gonn Orta). He also knows a few Praxian secrets.

>(4) Finally, what's the full story on Sheng Seleris? What God or Gods
>did her worship? Were his powers Shamanic in nature, gotten from pacts
>with various Great Spirits, did he serve Dara Happan Nomad deities,
>what?

        He was certainly a great shaman, and probably had relations with several Great Spirits. He was probably also a great religious leader of the pentan religion (Sun tribe I think), also a master of Kralorelan mysticism, and much more besides. Like most people of his stature, he has all sorts of tricks.

        It has been suggested that Sheng did the neat trick of encouraging people to worship his fetch/himself, and through this and heroquesting was of nearly godlike stature himself.

        Cheers

                David


Powered by hypermail