Nick
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Now I have time to give you some proper answers.
> It would be useful to know more about this character. He/she seems
to be a sorcerer....
Eshaella is a non-Malkioni sorceress, receiving disparate training in Godforgot, and by Aeolian sorcerers, and anything else she could pick up. Her approach and attitudes toward sorcery have been politely described as unique, less politely as rogue. She spent a great deal of effort gaining acceptance as an accolyte of Donandar. Other runic attachments have been gained unsought. She is illuminated, and awakened in awareness. (which as far as Ive ever been able to understand is somewhere between Eastern Enlightment and New Age Cosmic Awareness) I cant tell you any more on that because that G.M. moved back East and Ive totally lost contact.
She certainly did not mean to denigrate either Sorcery, Spirit or Divine Magic, but has pretty much had to come up with her own ideas how things work so her cosmology is effectively reverse engineered from the RQ3 rules system.
Ive already tried to answer to spirit magic so Ill leave that alone for now, except that Eshaella feels that there is no difference between cult gained spirit magic and shamanicly gained spirit magic except for how the spiritual attachment was introduced. Either way the spellcaster has a spiritual attachment to a magical spirit that she can influence to cast that spell. Sometimes that spirit is unable, busy, recalcitrant, or whatever. The warping of the spellcasters spirit occurs in divine magic, requiring in her opinion the power of a god.
On Divine Magic, Eshaella feels that a portion of the acolytes own spirit is being separated and altered. (it could be just as easily traded, but that doesnt suit her sensibilities, Gods dont swap) She supports this due to the loss of spritual power with the sacrifice, and by the fact that this sacrificed spell can be separated from the acolyte and enchanted into an item. It seems to her that this supports the idea that the spell has to have some individual spiritual identity. The properties of truestone bother her a lot because she cant really justify them, but shes not convinced that truestone is exactly part of the world or exactly bound by the compromise.
On sorcery, its hard to argue that point for point sorcery is as powerful than comparable spirit magic. Bladesharp 4 has the effect of damageboost 4 and a bless weapon 4 as well. (Eshaella has no contact or knowledge of the bless weapon spell, but its the most succinct example) Compare the cost of befuddle and stupefaction, and multimissile is way beyond sorcery as she knows it. As an adept sorceress, she also knows that in its own way sorcery is by far the most powerful form, but only its own way. Weapons she enhances can tear through armor for weeks, not minutes, and she can spend the next ten years underwater if for some reason she found it needful. The pattern for the sorcery spell is less powerful than its spirit equivalent, but what the sorcerer can do with that pattern is something else .
On the multiple Glorantha theory. It started when she was transferred from one campaign to another, with a different crew of players and G.M. Eshaella and companions had gotten some serious alarms on the undead front. Not being stupid, and having a friend who was First Sword in the local Humakt temple, a PC in her last campaign, she went to get his help. Imagine her surprise to find that the temple had never heard of Rolf, and the first sword was the most muscular duck she has ever seen. She later returned to the first campaign when it started back up and there was Rolf again. The cradle incident was at a tournament game, I dont remember who the player was, but the character was well played and memorable. He was played in a sort of tortured eternal champion model. I assume the duplications were tournament related.
This is all just a characters viewpoint, and is not likely to match anyone elses. I feel it reflects the RQ3 system far more than Glorantha. I am limited as to my Glorantha data, having Gods of Glorantha, Troll Gods, Elder Secrets, and random magazines as my library. Id like more but have too many more pressing demands upon my limited income. Frankly most of your debates require way too much background information for me to make much sense of them. Since the rules system affects the game reality at least as much as any Greg wisdom I felt that submitting the paper would be of some use. It was written as an attempt to better define the character. I liked the feel of it personally and have adapted it to the cosmology of Shehallalecyn, the worlds I run, which I doubt any readers have the remotest interest in.
Unrelated topic. Sorry I went off on the Tolkein comment. I thoroughly agree that Tolkein elves are not appropriate models for Aldryami. I like the seasonal personalities. All I have on the Luathelans is Eldar Secrets so I cant really comment on that, but from what is there a Silmarillion influenced style might well be appropriate.
Allen
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