Not necessarily. What about a Mind Link between two people in different cities? I know that it is a rules suggestion, but in a magical wordl such as Glorantha where such things are possible, there is no reason to be limited to having to use clocks. Two people could be in instantaneous contact and could make the observation of when noon occured. Problem solved.
On Infinite Skies:
The concept of an infinite diameter sky clashes somewhat with the old
concept of Glorantha being a bubble in the Primal Chaos. It also has
no aesthetic appeal to me at all.
In Pamaltela there is a Burning Desert which was formed when the Sky was tilted during the God Time and touched the Earth. This implies that the Sky has a limit in at least one direction. Thus, it would probably have a limit in the other directions, although where it actually ends is hard to see. Maybe it just falls into the Primal Sea, or maybe when Umath ripped Sky and Earth apart he filled the void completely, ensuring that the Sky just floats above the Air.
As soon as you bring in concepts such as an infite diameter you have to bring in more and more explanations and rationalisations which just confuses things.
Anyway, if you can walk down the Steps of Hell and gain entrance into the Underwold, or even jumping down Hell Crack with a big bag of food to reach Hell then you can equally well fly up to the Sky. All you need to do is time yourself to get a rough idea of the distance. Once you are there, you can go to where Sky River Titan is bleeding like a pig and jump down the waterfall, once again timing yourself until you bellyflop into Skyfall Lake. Of course, timing yourself using heartbeats needs some tweaking because of the thrill of the waterchute.
Nick Brooke gives a list of spells available to Orlanth from other deities to show that most spells are available from allied deities. However, being a nit-picker, I'll have to make a few comments:
Befuddle - In RQ2 this was available to evryone through Chalana Arroy's error, which was definitely not repeated for Sleep. I would reckon that Chalana Arroy would not routinely teach an attack spell such as Befuddle to the general public as they would abuse such a vast power.
Endurance would probably come from Voria as well. I thought that Orlanth had Farsee, but I could be wrong. Heal would also come from Chalana Arroy.
> So: we're missing the RQ3 Ritual Spirit Magics (where any cultist
> can and should use the Ritual Rune Magics instead);
But an initiate would have to sacrifice POW for the Divine Magic
spell then for the enchant. Surely it is cheaper to get a Spirit
Magic spell which does not involve a one-use POW sacrifice?
Sergio Mascarenhas asks:
> I've been following the discussion about how Yelm crosses the sky
> each day, and a question came to my mind that can be related to this
> issue: Nights are dark, but is this elemental darkness?
Yes, the Dark Night Sky is Xentha, mother of Argan Argar, who conquered the Sky after Yelm had died and after the Darkness deities were driven from Hell (or left to conquer the Surface World, depending on who you ask).
Peter Linton Tracy:
> It just occured to me reading (after a considerable hiatus) the
> YT/Humakt Heroquest stuff that the reason a Scimitar of YT can be
> resurrected is that the God YT had ...severed himself from his
> mortal wounds... just as the Big H had severed himself from other
> ties.
Maybe, but it could be that Yanafal Tarnils realised that there was no need to be fanatical about following Humakt and that he could be resurrected with no problem. In fact, I think that the reason that he was not killed in his Big Duel with Humakt was that he was but was resurrected, cheating in Humakt's eyes (that and the fact that he had his boys with him and Humakt's Gang had gone off chasing the Young Elementals).
Richard Develyn asks:
> I've been reading the Dragon Pass rules and it seems to me that the
> original thinking behind spirit combat was that it was pretty much
> the same as normal combat but on the spirit level.
>
> With RQ2/3 this seemed to get lost. In particular spirit combat:
>
> a) got boring (or maybe I should say "remained" boring)
> b) got deadly (even beyond resurrection)
> c) got personal (no shared attacks or defenses)
>
> I never ever liked spirit combat in RQ2. Has anyone ever reformed
> it, or does anyone have any thoughts on how it might be reformed?
> Even better, can anyone tell me what the "spirit" of spirit combat
> should be?
Yep, take a look at my Web Site on
www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/1481/ and look at the rules there.
If you want, I could post it to the Digest.
In fact, if anyone does not have Web Access and wants things from my
Web Site, just email me and ask.
The "spirit" of spirit combat is to stuff the opponent before he/she stuffs you - pretty much the same as for normal combat.
Simon Hibbs:
> It looks like some of my posts have gone astray again.
So, I am not the only one.
> Unfortunatley, the Humath-Arkat > HumaArkat > Humakt theory is not
> supported by Greg, and so cannot be considered to be canon untill
> such time as he is persuaded of it. Or untill he comes up with an
> even cooler thoery of his own.
Ha, ha, ha, ha! It's always good when a theory I do not like gets shot down in flames!!!
Richard Ohlson :
> >...For one, does a hero path have to represent the direct
> >actions of a god, or can they reflect the actions of a hero.
SImon Hibbs:
> If the hero is acting as an avatar of the god, then both are true.
> Achieving this is a vital step in the establishment of a heroquest.
If a HeroQuest is performed in normal Time, it pnly affects the Questor. If performed on the God Plane then it carves out a groove in the God Plane which allows others to follow it. If the Quest is taught as part of a cult and is performed primarily by cult members then it will become accepted as part of the cult.
Richard Develyn brings up the Ultimate Heresy once more:
> As I ponder the replies I've had about things like Spirit Magic (many
> thanks, BTW) I know I've been wondering whether it's sensible for me to
> start a campaign using RQ at all.
If you start a campaign using another system you will miss out on all the wonderful rules and subrules produced by RQ over the years. Also, you will have to convert all the RQ spells etc. into Rolemaster format. Unless, of course, you want to abandon all the RQ stuff such as Spirit Combat, spells for everyone, cults etc. and go for something else entirely. AD&D now has cults, I believe, and could well be worth a look :-).
Simon
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #483
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