Martin Laurie - Deville and Onslaught was great! What Cult, if any, does
Onslaught belong too? Storm Bull?
>
> From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
> Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 15:39:43 +1200
> Subject: Prax and truth
> Trotsky:
> ========
>
> >Heck, I like the Dara Happans as much as
> >anyone, but I don't see any evidence their magic works better than anyone
> >elses. I think their success is due to quite different reasons.
>
> Then why were the Lunars able to defeat the Carmanians? Why
> were the Lunars able to defeat Sheng Seleris when he was at the
> height of his powers and then some? Why have the Lunars been
> able to defeat Orlanth in the very land where he was born and the
> Praxians within the confines of their Sacred Land?
>
> To say that the Dara Happan magic works no better than anybody
> elses is like saying that the Technology of the 19th Century
> Europeans is no better than anybody elses IMO.
Why were the Lunars defeated all the way across Prax, and at Dragon Pass, when Argrath Dragonspear brought his new (old?) secrets to the people?
I see it as the Lunar Magic being the key. Up until then, the Dara Happan Solar empire to my best knowledge pretty much always had it's butt whupped by those smelly Dragon Pass barbarians. Only until recently, with the coming of the Lunar Empire and it's Sorcery, Illumination, and Chaotic Magics, were the peoples of Peloria and Dara Happa (after undergoing something of a cultural transformation) able to march to conquest. For 400 years they rode high on the hog, until this fellow Argrath discovers Draconic secrets in the ruins of Pavis and elsewhere that negates their uncounterable advantage (superiority behind the Glowline, perhaps, ability to safely use Chaos, Sorcery) and starts marching the Lunar Empire towards its inevitable, and well-deserved doom.
Oh, and Pete,technically, it's *Lunar* magic, not Dara Happan Magic. If you want to be geographically correct, it's Pelorian magic.
General Debate/Question Stuff
Here's more fun, and something that should hopefully stir up the pot as much as the whole subjective/objective thread did...
In a Theistic Culture in Central Genertela, can one get along without a God?
When I introduce new gamers to RQ, I always get something along these lines... "Do I have to join a Cult? I really don't want to be taking orders from some God. Is it really necessary?" Then I sit that player down and have a long talk with him or her about culture and mythology in Glorantha, and how the Gods aren't just some excuse to restire your spells on some outer plane, but are real and interact with normal humans on a daily basis in RQ, and how the world itself is inherently Mythic (for example, when they see the Glorantha map shaped like a lozenge and when they hear that Bronze is mined from the bones of dead gods, they usually get a kick out of that.)
Can a person in Central Genertela slide by without becoming an initiate? Even ancestor-worship cults like Daka Fal have initiation and priests, after a fashion. I have had players in RQ2 who try to slide by on their own without initiating and then try to buy their way into Orlanth (Which usually failed, unless they were truly noble and heroic... Even though these people weren't initiates, Orlanth was watching them because he is the God of Adventurers, and it's his purview.) Most of my players simply bit the bullet and initiated into Orlanth, Humakt or some other suitable adventurer cult. I no longer allow the 'buy-in' option in RQ3, by the way.
I can see perhaps someone gaining a good deal of political power as being a guild master or somesuch, but I would think generally that non-initiates would be generally thought of as not accepting their full adult responsibilities. Those who would not even be lay members would probably be thought of as insane. Trying to convince some players of the reality of the Gods in RQ/Glorantha and immerse themselves in the setting seems to be the hardest part. For the Agnostic/Atheist in Central Genertela who wants naught to do with the Gods, are there any options?
Chris Bell
remster_at_interport.net
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