Graeme asked some questions.
+why do animals die?
According to the theists, the first being to die was Grand Father Mortal.
Then Death had many users.
Orlanth killed the sun.
Zorack Zoran killed Flamal (and thus all the plants die)
Foundchild (and others hunter gods) taught humans to use death against
animals in order to have something to eat.
The animals die because their ancestors were killed during the gods' war.
+Horal's caste
The Brithini don't have a knight caste, they have a soldier caste and
Horal is the first soldier.
He did border patrol, monster suppression. He was a bodyguard, a custom
officer or a tax collector.
And sometimes he went into the ennemies'hole in order to make them
surrender or die.
All the malkioni sects have a soldier caste wether the members fight on
foot or on horseback.
Only the Hrestroli (old or reformed) sects have a knight caste whose
patron saint is Hrestrol. These two sects believe in caste mobility. In
the Old Hrestroli church everyone begins in his father's caste and may
become a knight, and have the right to lead men, to do some high magic,
to fight with weapons and to do some manual work.
In the Loskalmi church (ie the reformed Hrestroli), everyone begins in
the farmer caste. Those who want may enlist in the army (soldier caste),
become an officer (knight caste) and be ordained a priest (wizard caste)
and become a noble (noble caste).
+God of silver feet
The Brithini revere Malkion as a prophet and a lawgiver, but don't
worship anything. They know (at least the zzaburi) that by tieing their
soul (ie worshiping) to a spirit/false god/whatever, they could have a
powerful and easy way of doing magic (ie rune magic), but it is against
Malkion's law and means terminal ageing. All the Brithini know that death
by old age means that the soul is forfeit. IMO the Vadeli may bargain
with spirits while Brithini may only enslave them.
Hrestrol brought back two things from his quest, the knight caste and the
worship of the invisible god.
The theological question is what sort of being deserves to be worhiped.
The monotheists say that only the invisible god, his prophets and his
saints may be worshiped. IMG the Galvosti worship only the invisible god
and only use the saints as example of proper malkioni behaviour.
It does not mean that other beings cannot be worshiped, only that it is
illegal and that those beings destroy/eat/enslave their worshipers' souls
after their death.
The henotheist say that some of those beings are the creator's agents in
the world and thus may be propriated or worshiped.
The god of silver feet is very strong in communication magic and was used as material component for the ritual that created the ban.
+Sacred time
IMO the malkioni have some ceremonies near the spring equinox. It reminds
them the day when Zzabur brought back the sun after the long night.
+Humans
The normal races (ie the warerans, the agimori, the veldang, the kralori
and the teleosians) are human races, and their members are human beings.
IMO the Brithini, the Vadeli, the Waertagi and the Men-and-a-half are
human. The waertagi are tied to water and sicken when they leave the sea,
like other humans sicken when they do long sea journey (any similitude
with scorbut is voluntary).
Sandy Petersen said that the Hsunchen were human too.
I have always thought that ogres were not human.
Peace
Jean
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #194
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