Resurrection, (songs of) praise

From: Paul Chapman <mercutio_at_btinternet.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 00:24:58 +0100


Hi all,

I'm lurking just at the mo due to heavy workloads, but I'd just like to say a coupla things:-

Resurrection Abuse:



David Miller (have we met, David?) comments:
>The recent comment on the digest has got me thinking. Given that after few
>days the body has decomposed so much that it isn't worth resurecting.
Wouldn't
>it be better (if this is possible) to capture the spirit (as hangs around the
>body for seven days before fading into the otherworld) and bind it into an
>animal or into a freshly sacrificed body.

I have nothing to back this up, but I feel off the top of my head that this isn't really possible. The spirit is dead and requires resurrection rituals to return it to the state when it can work in the living realm (I expect to get loads of arguments against this). Also, the animal spirit may prevent the binding, as would possibly the links between the spirit and body of the sacrifice. Dead spirits aren't able to posess in the way ghosts can unless they become ghosts, in which case they can still only inhabit the living. Life is a crucial factor here... if it's not present, it's not present. Remember: "Nosebiter is no more an axe with a spirit bound into it than is a normal human a man with a spirit bound into him." There's a difference between life and spirits bound into bodies.

However:
>This kind of practice could lead to high ranking people becoming practically
>immortal, imagine when your body starts to get old sacrifice a war
>prisoner/criminal/slave and hay-presto you've got a healthly young body.

High-ranking people in the right sort of culture (e.g. the Lunar Empire) are often practically immortal anyway... _these_ are the people that get carried off the battlefield dead and receive the costly and rare resurrection magics. These are the people that get their bodies carefully repaired and re-energised by healers.

        Also, don't forget that Glorantha being Glorantha, a fair proportion of high-ranking people will be magically powerful, and powerful magic (e.g. HeroQuesting) can grant practical or actual immortality. All-in-all, the more important you are, the more difficult it is to really die, but also the more people will on average want you to die...

Other Stuff:



I loved the thought of the OOO's return now that Belintar is no more. I wonder if Belintar is skilled enough to bring himself back from the punishment dealt to him on the HeroPlane by the Lunars?

Michael Cule's analysis of his encounter with a bird was great. I often think like that myself and I'm glad to know others do. The Tad Williams book "Tailchaser's Song" presents things similarly from a feline POV, even if it is fantasy too... worth a read. Anyway, a nice story Mike, thank you. An insight like that was refreshing amongst the stodgy Obs/Subs stuff! My girlfriend's cat friend is called "Cleo" too BTW. A small world indeed!

Pam Carlson - For some reason I found your "rantings" to be similarly refreshing as Mike's story; political correctness be damned! :-)

        I agree with your arguments re: currently published material. I'm currently in the process of ordering all of Greg's recent works but that doesn't stop me wishing more stuff was easily available. And I would love to go into Virgin games or Orc's Nest and see more than one lonely Glorantha-based game supplement... it does make me sad to see that, it really does. I'd dearly love to see the shelves bursting with G:TG supplements, with new Gloranthan source or game material coming out regularly, every few months or so. Ah, but I dream....

Pam, I'll help you do that weird-sounding thing to _anyone_ who abandons their pets/animal friends!

Could a Chaosium type please give us an idea of any plans to revive old titles such as the Dragon Pass boardgame or Nomad Gods? Or any of the old Gloranthan source material that used to be in the RQ2 sourcebooks? I seem to remember rumours of something at Convulsion to do with Stratelibri but I forget now. <confused look as Paul racks his ever-so-tired brain>

Could someone please cite me the source material for the Humath/Humakt/Arkat thing please? I'd like to check it up.

Oh, one last thing. Alex F: - sorry to sound stupid, but what does "Slainte" mean? For some reason I envisage an acute accent above the 'e' so I've probably heard it before but its meaning escapes me. Please enlighten me (but don't Illuminate me, SVP)!

Signing off before I fall over,
Paul.


Powered by hypermail