>Our magical characteristics include one stat for each of the five major
>magical systems (as I see them): DIV = divine connection, SPR =
>spiritual connection, PRE = presence, DRA = draconic connection, CHS =
>chaos connection. Together, these new stats replace what we now know
>as POW.
Which would seem to preclude the possibility that you can be magically intrinsically tough without studying a particular tradition. Which I'm pretty unsure about - it certainly seems that in Glorantha some people are just naturally more magically powerful than others, and its certainly the case that some beings that are stupid enough to never learn any magic are extremely resistant, while others are vulnerable.
>In other words, we have _no_ magical strength
>or ability when we are born. Left in the wild, we would grow up
>without magic.
And in Glorantha, this is not the case - beings have an intrinsic non-zero ability to resist magic.
And multiple Divine connections should be maintained separately (and something similar goes for other paths as well). And, like all near classifications of Gloranthan magic, it fails to stand up to close examination. Is Daka Fal 'spiritual' or 'divine'? Which one is the Arkat Kingtroll cult? Is a connection to a chaos god chaos or divine? What about a god thats only mildly chaos tainted?
Representing each individual pathway (ie individual deity, type of sorcery, etc) as a single ability (not a stat) is possible, though inflexible in RQ rules (where skills are straight out percentages).
>If you are raised in the Lunar Empire or among chaots, you would learn
>to use your CHS, your connection to chaos.
But then again, presuming everyone in the Lunar Empire is chaotic just goes to show that Michael is wildly out of touch....
>Finally, I propose that Lunar Illumination allows us to discover yet
>_another_ stat that combines the magic stats with the physical ones
>to define our seventh part. In this state, you lose your other stats
>and have only the one, ILL.
Illunmination is much more about reconciliation of competing pathways than a pathway in itself. Learning more and more about Illumination has fewmagical effects, other than equiping you better to teach Illumination. Illumination is step on the path, not the pathway itself. Which doesn't mean Illumination is not valuable - far from it, as for those who want Power, the ability of the Illuminated to combine otherwise incompatible paths is very alluring. Not to mention access to the Red Goddess cult, if you're a Lunar (but Red Goddess cult members certainly use other abilities as well, primarily divine magic).
Cheers
David
Powered by hypermail