Divination

From: Andrew Joelson <joelsona_at_cpdmfg.cig.mot.com>
Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 16:30:25 -0500

Carl Fink:
> I know people react contemptuously to the mention of rules here, but
> why would divinatory magic be the only kind that *doesn't* work on
> Glorantha?

        The problem with Divination is one of game balance, as in any other fantasy game. It is a balance between the GM giving usefull & needed info to the players and not wanting to give away too much. That's why it's usefull to have Divination be cryptic under most circumstances. Of course, the old "Did Snurri Olafson kill Ragnar the Irritating" is simple enough to come with a clear, monosyllabic answer.....

        I am going to steer clear of the 'Do the Gods really know everything'  question, as in this instance, it's just a convenient way of limiting the power of Divination.

James Frusetta:
> Hmm. Instead of the Soviet Invasion of Ireland, I present a new example:
> the medieval Ottomans' subjugation of the Balkans....

    <large snip>
> ....Hell, no. I'm going to adjust to reality, try and minimize our
> losses, deal with the vile, horrible, Chaos-loving Red Scum when I
> have to, and wait for things to go my way. Let the exile Sartarites
> do the Glorious Rebel crud you see in the movies.

        Ummm, doesn't all this sound familiar to anyone? Sounds to me like the way the Lunars keep control of Sartar. Argrath only got the Tribes to unite when he came along with a big bunch of Praxians....

        I would say the differences between Sartar and Prax are: 1) Praxians are even less organized, and harder to bring together 2) Praxians tend to roam over vast areas, and can dissapear with all

        their wordly goods in short order, so

1. The Lunars cannot exert the kind of control over the nomads that they can over the farmers in Sartar.
2. Other than the herds, the Praxians really don't have anything worth trying to take away from them. The Lunars mostly leave them alone unless they come into the Zola Fel valley.
3. The average Praxian has suffered less from the Lunars.; many have never seen one.

me:
>> the entire Issaries cult has been trying to resurect Gennert >> since before the Dawn, and they are not making significant progress...

Michael Raaterova:
> The *entire* cult of Issaries? Surely you mean a (perhaps sizeable)
>*minority* of the initiates of Issaries in *Prax*.
> And how do you know they're not making significant progress?

        If you had my post carefully, you would have observed that I was repeating something Sandy Petersen said at the GC IV Lore Auction. Perhaps Sandy was generalizing when he said it.....

        At any rate, the reason given for the lack of progress is that the death of Gennert figures into the myths of lots of other cults. The chaotics celebrate it as a great victory, and re-enact it in their rites.

        For myself, I will add that non-chaotics probably add to the problem by holding rituals wherein Gennert dies, and then their hero/ god goes and does xxxxxx. This builds up a lot of inertia, if you catch me meaning.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   Y
Andrew Joelson				    joelsona_at_cpdmfg.cig.mot.com  -|-

aka Rupert von Harl; Cults of Seven Mothers, Yanifal Tarnils and Humakt |  "Contradiction? No, I always did tend to kill chaos creatures anyway" /

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