> >That is also exactly how draconic magic works in
> >Kralorela where they know a thing or too about the
> >left-handed way. Common people give worship to the
> >exarchs who pass it on to the dragon emperor who is
> >the focus of "all" the magic of Kralorela. So, the
> >purpose isn't the same as in the EWF, but the method
> >is too similar for it to be a coincidence.
>
> I find this comparison far too vague to be of any insight. The
> citizens of the non-draconic Lunar Empire and the erstwhile
> Holy Country also operate on a similar basis.
In all states controlled by a (semi-)divine ruler the populace will of course give worship to the ruler. However, there is a distinction here. In the lunar empire, it is a civic duty for a lunar citizen to belong to the cult of Moonson Imperator. Which means that they worship the ruler _directly_. Exactly how the cult of the Pharaoh (and the Only Old One before him) worked is not published as far as I know, but there is nothing to suggest that it worked indirectly, through a pyramid structure.
And that is just how both the EWF magic hierarchy and the Kralorelan worship structure work.
> Besides the
> pyramid scheme of the EWF was IMO akin to the pyramid scheme that
> recently caused a civil war in Albania rather than a pyramid
> style system of government which is the case in modern Kralorela.
> The EWF justifed this by planning (hoping, feverently praying)
> that when the resources of the EWF had been thoroughly exhausted,
> the Grand Dragon would have awoken and brought about a new Golden
> Age.
As I said, the purpose was quite another than what is the case in Kralorelan, but the _method_ is similar.
> Besides I don't think the Kralori are aware that draconic
> magic is left-handed.
Ok, to qualify my assertion. The common people in Kralorela don't know squat about draconic ways. Most of them worship Rice Mother, Krala, Den Xi (Dendara) and Yang Ti (Yelm) as normal deities. Their only draconic contacts are the mandatory worship of the exarch of the province and the weird mystics they might meet.
But, the emperor has the soul of a dragon ever since Daruda's time. He _knows_ draconic magic. IMO this knowledge is disseminated to the learned. Remember also that human-dragonewt relations are good in Kralorela. I think mystics and mandarins practice writing, crafts, fencing and whatever with their left hand in order to come closer to the draconic secrets.
This is the way it works in my Glorantha. Anyone may rule differently in their version of the world of course.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #252
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