I'll side with this. Resurrections are rare and difficult... bringing
people back from across the river of the dead is the greatest and holiest
mystery of Chalana Arroy. This is never undertaken lightly, and there is
_always_ a cost. I think this is one of the cases where RQ rules and
Gloranthan reality differ quite a bit. A rescurretion attempt is much
closer to a dangerous Hero Quest than a 3 point close-your-eyes-lay-on-
the-hands-and-WOOSH RQ ritual divine spell.
Also, people brought back are very rarely unchanged and undamaged by the
experience. Their spirits had already started leaving the mortal world,
and many don't seem to remember how to live. The cults of Death and the
dead seem to attract the resurrectees. Of course this is not always the
case. An individual whose spirit burns strong and bright (excuse me, you
trolls out there, just a figure of speech) and who had important,
unfinished business left behind may come through the experience like it
was just a very unpleasant dream.
I have always hated the way the Lunar cults have been reduced to
duplicates of theyalan ones. I could write a looong essay on this subject,
but probably I'd better cut it short at the moment, since I'm presently at
work, as a computer-peon... In Finland we serve a compulsory term in the
army, but there is this alternative of working for some government, or
beneficial agency for a year... for free. I think my co-workers are
getting suspicious, so I'll hurry on...
The 7m cults also have resurrection as their main party trick. They
brought back a long dead goddess, and this gives them some power over
Death. Even more than in Chalana arroys case I feel that the 3 point
runespell is right out. I think a lunar resurrection seremony demands a
rather powerfull priestess from each of the cults of 7m, and that the
ceremony itself is rather slow and cumbersome. I think their resurrection
works very reliably tough, and the fact that they work as a group spreads
out the MP / POW loss, and offers protection incase they accidentally
bring back something different (which i think is a wery real danger, when
trying to snatch a soul back from Death). This is an idea-in-development,
so I don't have anything much more precise, and, no Nick, I don't know who
fills the seventh position... possibly no one, and the Seventh Participant
is said to be present in spirit.
As for the other cults who are reputed to be capable of resurrection:
Xiola Umbar; whose cult is quite shamanistic, as troll cults generally are. I think Xiola Umbar priestesses are only capable of bringing back trolls, using their kinship ties. Of course they wouldn't even be interested in resurrecting anything else.
Yelm; has mastered and overcome his own death. I think the yelmic "spell" only works for worshippers of Yelm... and if one wants to be cruel, then to only those in the Yelm the Emperor cult, the leaders who claim blood ties to Yelm.
Can't remember any others at the moment... anyways, got to run. Damn this idiotic civilian service...
-Adept
"thinker, dreamer and adventurer"
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #551
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