Re: Divination/Subjectivity from James Wadsley on 1997-05-19 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: James Wadsley <wadsley_at_cita.utoronto.ca>
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 21:11:20 -0400

My Australian 2 cents is placed firmly behind the subjectivists :). Of course you can argue that we can't all be right, but people do agree to disagree. Other times they make war and kill the heretics - we see enough of that in Glorantha. I had a mildly scary thought: What if you declare the 'standard' Orlanthi and surrounding myths CORRECT and then the Lunars kill them all (or vice versa of course). We are left with a world full of hopelessly deluded people. I don't think early RQ was more cohesive, just incomplete.

I strongly support the idea of vague divination. Where does it say Divination is yes/no anyway?

"Hmm. The holy pig scratched twice. As we all know the sun rises and
falls, expressing a duality relfected in the scratchings of the holy pig. As high priest of Yelm, it means that my interpretation was correct. Cast the heretic into the pit."

Divination is a form of Heroquest. If you want to have something slightly non-orthodox supported by the god, you have to have the spiritual weight to do it. IMHO, all 'serious' divinations that would actually challenge the nature of the cult or the god MUST be heroquests.

"You wish to know if what the Orlanth worshippers say is true; that
Yelm was assisted in his re-ascent!". The priest spat. His body shook with revulsion at the very thought. "You have served us well, Rune Lord and for this I will ask the God in earnest; to shed light on this delusion of the Orlanthi."

The priest called to the shining sun and cast feathers on the eternal fires. As the fine ashes drifted about him, the priest's mind filled with knowledge. "You must travel far to seek your answer." he said,
"The journey will be long and painful and not without cost." As
the priest continued, the battle hardened eyes of warrior of light became wide. Silently he swore an oath that he should see these sights, for the greater glory of his god.

Many years later, the hero gloriously smashed his way to the surface from Hell; light personified melting the shadows to nothingness. His mind was filled with the foolishness of his question, he laughed and pulled the quivering Orlanthi he had chosen to accompany him to his feet. He laughed as the hordes of trolls and darkness creatures ran in panic before him.
"Stay here." he told the Orlanthi and he went back to gather the
rest of his motley crew ...

Do even great quests such as the one above shed light on anything? No. I don't think divination provides any answer you didn't already suspect. Only people capable of creating their own paths can come up with non-orthodox answers.