divinations and laws

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 01:32:59 +1200


Erich Schmidt:

JR>> Personally, I think most priests have better uses for divination than
>> satisfying such teleological questions.

>Actually, this is one of the first things that I thought of when I first
>saw the spell. A great way to quell heresy, just ask the god how it
>wants to be worshipped.

Divination is not 100% correct. According to the roolz, one only has a POW x 5% of reading the signs correctly. Which explains why it's not used very often in Orlanthi legal disputes for example.

IMO the God will be totally consistent for one particular priest. For another priest, the God may well give a different answer. Normally the answer that the priest recieves will be similar to that of his or her colleagues and the wider community. The divination will also tend to confirm the lore and dogma in which the priest has learned in the process of attaining priestly status.

The priest will be aware that priests of another temple to their god may have different traditions which they claim to be supported by divination. For the most part, the priest will rationalise this by saying the other priests are deluded and can't divine whether the sun will rise tomorrow. In organized religions, the divergence between temples is minimalized by commonly agreed doctrines and a higher authority to settle disputes. Divinations which disagree with the offical doctrine are discarded as faulty (unless they suit a person's agenda).

If the priest recieves a blinding new relevation about his religion, (ie 'Sorcery is okay to use') then his subsequent divinations will IMO confirm his relevation. If by some chance, the priest's colleagues managed to convince him that the relevation is *wrong* and return him to orthodoxy, then his divinations will support the orthodoxy. He will in this case rationalise this as having read the signs wrong during his period of error.

A skeptic might argue that the difference in answers from the divination is a sign that the God is a figment of his worshipper's imagination. Such an arguement has very little impact on RW religions (for instance in Christianity: Is infant baptism valid? Is venerating icons idolatry? Does Man have Free Will or does he walk damned or chosen?) and so I don't see why gloranthans should suffer traumas of faith if pointed at similar discrepancies.

>Which, also, explains why heresy is so rife in
>the West. You can't communicate with the Invisible God.

You *can* communicate with the Invisible God. Every Malkioni Sect has its teachings based upon the relevations of the Invisible God and transmitted through his Saints and Prophets. It's more difficult than the rune spell of divination.

Dave Bailey:


>"Confusing I'm afraid, I was hoping you could help? I've recently come
>into possession of some rather excellent Lunar work (Tales #13) on the
>Malkioni that clearly states they have 3 laws in one part but lists 4
>elsewhere? Know you of a solution?

The 'Three Cornerstones of Malkioni Law' mentioned on page 12 are obviously not the same as the Four Laws of Malkion on page 6. It may be that the Cornerstones refers to the Natural Law, the Moral Law and the Magical Law (which governs sorcery).

End of Glorantha Digest V4 #405


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