On treat disease and treat poison
>I've always assumed so. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't
>increase with experience. First Aid does. They are not purely academic
>skills. They have a practical side.
Unfortunately so do animal and plant lore (farming). Making the same skill for both the practical and academic aspects was a big mistake IMO.
Nils Weinander:
Paraphrasing:
Nils purported to find an parallel between the EWF and the Kralori in that both have a pyramidal power structure in that the masses worship one tier who worship the next and ascribes it to the common use of draconic magic.
I pointed out that the Lunar Empire and the Holy Country were run on similar lines so to ascribe this to draconism was stretching it.
Now Nils:
>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_.
And the lunar subjects who do not belong to the cult of Moonson also worship the Red Emperor directly (albeit as laymembers).
However my point is there is nothing to stop the Lunars from adopting a cultic structure that you alleged for Kralorela where the Satraps are worshipped who then worship the Emperor. The only reason they do not is that it probably gives the Satraps too much power (and having played in the Life of Moonson freeform, I am inclined to agree that this is a bad thing).
Secondly, I do not believe that the average Kralori worships the exarches who worship the Emperor. The Kralorela writeup states that OTOH:
'All adult citizens worship Godunya, the Dragon Emperor
as a matter of state policy. Their worship is channeled
through the exarcs, making them foci of magical power,
and making the Emperor himself the most magical human in
the world'
Thus the magical power that the exarchs accrue through worship derives from their duties in collecting the worship owed to Godunya and siphoning of a massive chunk for provincial (and personal) expenses. After all a tax-farmer does not claim any temporal authority when he collects taxes.
>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.
Apart from the hexapartite structure of the Sixths of the Holy Country each with their own cults and leaders.
>Most of [the common kralori] 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.
This I doubt. The Kralori magical tradition is mysticism as opposed to the theism of central genertela. The village priest who propiates the local spirit is as much as a participant of the kralori mystical tradition as the exarchs and the mystics.
Secondly, I do not think that the Kralori draw a distinction between Dragon Magic and Mysticism. Both are the same thing as far as they can tell. A good parallel is China where they ascribe many things (such as Feng Shui) to dragons which our occidental terminology would call spirits or occult natural forces.
OTOH the Kralori would say some things which look, feel and smell draconic to the outside world are _not_ draconic (such as the Path of Immanent Mastery).
>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.
The human-dragonewt relationships are good but the Kralori did not learn their dragon magic from the dragonewts nor is the lore of the dragonewts an integral part of the Kralori Empire IMO - they have about as much impact on Kralori magical thought as the Char-un do the Lunar Empire. Lastly there is considerable doubt from the dragonewts of central genertela as to whether the eastern dragonewts are proper dragonewts.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #254
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