Grammar and Atheism. from Michael Cule on 1997-05-25 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 12:49:10 GMT

First let me support Pam's call (note correct use of apostrophe there) for more awareness of grammar. Re: it's and its: I always used to get this confused (the distinction seeming arbitrary to me) until I read that the rule is that possessives formed from pronouns (hers, his, theirs, ours, whose, its) do not take apostrophes. If you can remember that the pattern is clearer.

Secondly, someone (can't remember who) wanted to know what to do about players who don't want their characters to worship them fuddy duddy old gods.

There are two ways to handle this:

The Before The Character Starts Way. Do this during character generation. At the point at which the character would normally be initiated. You have the tribal elders come to the poor fool and say:

"Lad, what's this I hear from your Mother about you not wanting to join

	Orlanth? What's the matter with you boy? Don't you know how dangerous
	life is nowadays? Doubly so since the Lunars came! Don't you think a man
	needs all the help he can get? And what god can help you better than
	Orlanth? He's everywhere that the air is!"



	"And hasn't Orlanth helped our tribe time and time again? Didn't he tell

	us where to look to find those rustled cattle? Didn't he cure your 
	Uncle Bert's Soul Waste? Are you trying to be ungrateful?"



	"And if you can't join the cult you can't join the Tribe! We're not 

	having outsiders who aren't sworn to the Sacred Mysteries hanging around
	trying to find out our secrets."



	"But still, if you can come up with a good enough reason then I suppose

	we can find the money to get you into another cult. What is it? Do you
	want to go off and join Donander, become a wandering musician like your
	worthless cousin?"



	"What's that?" (THE ELDER TURNS PALE) "You don't want to join ANY cult?

	Lad, lad, think what you're saying! Don't you know that if you die 
	without a cult to back you your soul will be left to howl throughout 
	eternity, a lifeless, mindless ghost with no memory or identity, fit 
	only to become the slave of some shaman or sorcerer? Lad, lad, think
	again!"

2.) You let the character be generated and run. During their life let them see how other characters get better deals on buying training and magic. And when they die (for they get no Divine Intervention) describe how their soul reaches the court of Daka Fal, describe how their comrades are taken up by their gods to their well deserved rest and then describe how Daka Fal, finding no divine sponsor for their miserable spirit sends them off to whole through the Spirit Plane for all eternity.

That should do it!

-- Michael Cule

Actor And Genius
AKA Theophilus Prince Archbishop Of The Far Isles Medieval Society Arms Purpure An Open Book Proper: On the Dexter Page an Alpha Or On the Sinister an Omega Or. Motto Nulla Spes Sit in Resistendo (Resistance is Useless). Ask me about the Far Isles: Better Living through Pan-Medieval Anachronisms.