Sorry about the poor quality (i.e. odd symbols infiltrating and so on) of my last post... I think trying to write offsite and copy it to my mail server didn't work. Some of my quotes of Sandy's comments evidently got mixed up as a result.
Joerg writes:
"If you find a cult which derives its magic from the one-to-one identification
of Orlanth and Yelm I'd look out for unreliable magic (and look at the
cyclical effects on certain deities' magics)..."
Ah yes. Tatius and his theories. Here we have the classic problem of a Yelmic priest equating Orlanth with Rebellus Terminus... and then screwing up in his attempt to defeat the god. Of course equating Orlanth into Dara Happan mythology means that the new Rebellus/Orlanth gets all the advantages of the Wind God.
"Then why not sword damage inflicted on opponents?" [regarding misleading
players about magical success]
Of course. And I do do that. Particularly useful with chaos creatures. I usually just describe the injury.
RQ2/RQ3. I was introduced to RQ2 as a kid. Since I played the then
archetypical Orlanthi, I never thought about magic much; just Countermagic,
Protection and Bladesharp.
In RQ3 I played a shapeshifting sorcerer-knight (illuminated) and more
recently a Desert Tracker/shamaness, and a Morocanth trickster... so yeah, I
was more into magic with RQ3.
Whether Trolls liked the Darkness.
They preferred the Darkness to which they came on the surface world to the
Dawn of the Lightbringers. I recall Spiderwoman had to convince KL with the
return of Wonderhome.
Contraception is a common spell in my campaign. It's woman's magic, usually,
and associated with Dark Earth, particularly among patriarchal societies.
Orlanthi of both sexes learn it. It doesn't work on Thed worshippers or broos,
among others.
Since it was probably one of the most basic 'magics' in our own world, I can't
see why it isn't common among fertility/Earth worshippers... who would have a
strong understanding of female fertility anyway. Actually the male version may
be a different spell. Or maybe (as has been suggested to me by a player, men
use Disruption.)
Preserve Food is against biogenesis (spontaneous magical growths of fungi or
flies). So Defeat Mee Vorala/Defeat Gorakiki-Fly Mother.
Ferment is probably a spell granted by the barley mother to the god of beer,
Minlister. (or by the rice goddess to whomever, etc.) It's useful for creating
the best type of brew... I suppose wild yeast spirits would also exist. The
same spell could be used to make cheese.
The other spells I used as color and thus they could be actually Glamour, etc.
You have a good idea with group magic being song or dance or music. I think perhaps all entertainment or courageous deeds or joy must be interpreted as lowlevel magic in Glorantha, based on what people are saying here. (And conversely all evil).
Sandy wrote a long list of evil magic thingies...
I should know better then to mention such things to prime movers, I guess. Are
there places in Glorantha that are more or less unmarred? Yes.
How often do children see broos... i.e. the extremes range from Prax (once or
twice a season, if nomads to what's a broo? (possibly Brithos). Can the
average peasant find a safe place to live, or does chaos invade too often?
The evening-out factor that Dave Dunham mentioned before is part of this. We
can say that it all works out in Glorantha, because everyone curses the
neighboring tribe, and so on, but there must be individual areas of higher
fertility or even no fertility.
This all makes out Glorantha as a desperate place. It's no wonder the
relatively peaceable and safe Kralorelans have such potent defenses. The
result, of course, is for anyone with more good magic to be torn down by the
hungry bad magic people. Pretty wretched.
[Let's go raid the Chalana Arroy temple...]
Given that as true, I can see the attractions of the Lunar hegemony.
Of course, this raises all sorts of interesting questions. When you fall in an
accident, or fumble, does one cast Dispel Magic on the curse you have? Is Heal
a specialized form of Dispel Magic or Reflection? Interesting idea for a heal
spell... one which reflects back the curse of injury... I seem to remember
that the Amazonian Indians and a few other low-tech tribes elsewhere believe
that all misfortune is bad magic.
Playing Glorantha this way is the sort of campaign where tribes hire Mallia
priests and Thanatar cultists are in the Free Army. Not sure I want to inflict
that on hapless players :).
One thing you can say for Glorantha, is that if you play it seriously, the world is pretty horrible... Sandy's comments were mostly central Genertelan in nature. How do the other 2/3rds of the world view evil?
Jeff Erwin
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