>Bear in mind that I don't like resurrection as a simple three-point
>spell, and want to consider it a more important heroquest level
>event.
I don't like the "cast spell and rise" variant either, but a really dedicated raiser of the dead might want to try once per week. I agree that this isn't realistic, but with say one full priestess per tribe and one resurrection per season, that's about one per clan every two years. Not quite "return from the dead by factory road"...
>My opinion is that 95% of Orlanthi men worship Orlanth and Barntar
>first and formost, and 95% of the women are initiate into Ernalda
>worship. If it takes 50 adults to support a rune level (the 2% in
>your example), a large 600 adult clan only gets 12 rune levels, and
>most of women would be worshippers of Ernalda (or other aspect of the
>Earth Goddess). Chalana is just too specialised.
Good analysis, but...
to take a real world analogue, when I studied chemistry, we had an average of 90 students per year (reckoning an average of 6 years studies, including slow students and graduating students) and about a dozen full priests, err, professors supported by about twice that number experienced acolytes, err, post-docs, and maybe fifty or so favoured initiates (phd students).
When I made my graduating thesis in the institute for mineralogy and petrography, there were about 8 students per year (plus about twice that number from related studies) with 8 specialized professors, a good dozen of post-docs and about 20 phd students.
Chemistry is a bit like an "all-people's" scientist "cult", and mineralogy is a specialist "cult" (at least in Kiel). Point is: the specialist "cult" of mineralogy has a much higher ratio of full priests and other rune levels than the less specialized "cult" of chemistry.
Same with the Lightbringer deities apart from Orlanth (an all-men's deity) and Flesh Man and Ginna Jar (no cult available) (that leaves Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy and Eurmal): probably up to one quarter of all cultists are rune level or close to it, the necessary spiritual support comes from the associated Orlanth and Ernalda cultists. (Ok, Eurmal has no rune levels, but equivalents in power of mischief, I suppose.)
Any tribe following the Report on the Orlanthi needs at least one active Chalana Arroy member, probably backed by at least a dozen tribal cult members. Enough tribal healers for an average of one resurrection per tribe and season...
>I would say that Chalana Arroy worship is even below the 0.1% that
>you mention.
Not quite. If a tribe of 3000 members has 15 CA cultists, that's 0.5% CA initiates or higher, but: with the higher rune level index of specialist cults that's also about 2 full rune levels and 2 near rune levels... 0.0667% or 0.133%, depending on how you count initiates with 9-12 points of divine magic. The tribe needs these fifteen initiates in order to provide one active priest on the council and one fall-back. Dispersed over 6 clans, that's one White Lady in three clans.
>Ernalda provides healing,
But no protection from diseases. That's where the advanced initiate with "Command (Cult) Healing Spirit" as one (seasonally reusable?) divine spell comes in handy (and this spell isn't just a spoken command, but an intricate worship ceremony including at least the family of the diseased person, probably about 50 to 80 participants from around).
>Now, somewhere I read (sorry, I'm at work) that to perform a
>resurrection, you either need 7x7 (49 people) or 7x7x7 (243 people)
>in the ceremony.
People, not CA initiates. A tenth to half of a clan... not impossible, really, but never piss off your clan, or you're gone.
>It is a powerful and draining event.
So is a birth, to all participants (including the father).
>So,
>if someone would have to get resurrected, the clan will have to focus
>a huge portion of its magical resources into getting one person
>raised.
Humbug. The clan will have an unscheduled general worship service to CA (the 243), with an inner group thereof of 49 doing the quest and 7 the deeper quest.
>The downside is that they can't devote their energies to the
>harvest, or more importantly, waging ware on foul Orlevings.
Which probably preceded the need for the resurrection ceremony anyway...
>> I can't see the average CA priestess performing as many as one
>> resurrection a year - more like one every 5 years.
>I agree with this, if they ever do a ressurection at all. A CA would
>tend to do what she could to help the living, not the already dead.
This depends on how dead a recently dispirited body is to a CA. As long as the spirit hovers about, probably not that dead, just severely inanimate.
Ian Thomson has a few surprises in his list of resurrections (rest snipped):
>CULT WHO
>L Mhy Non cult enemies and non chaos
>I Ontor Lunars and allied cults
>Teelo Norri Non cult enemies
IMO these cults don't have Resurrection themselves but rely on allied cults (Deezola/7Moms or CA).
>I'm also toying with the idea that unless you are an Initiate at
>least there is no chance of resurrection
An initiate of what? Does Voria/of count?
>Also I'm heretically allowing Humaktis to be resurrected by DI only,
>ie at point of death, basically big H says "Go back your work is not
>yet done" or some such, cos the body is still warm and the blood
>still coursing so they aren't really dead
Of course. Nothing heretical about this. If Humakt grants the DI, the Sword was broken, not shattered, and could be fixed.
Robert McArthur seems to be in my camp:
>I think that resurrection is pretty much as
>hard (easy?) as RQ has it.
I agree. Takes about 30 hours to perform with a fair chance of success and a worship service to accompany the ceremony. BTW IMG a Heal Body shouldn't take less than two or three hours of magical activity to take full effect, even if the worst things are put on hold from the beginning.
I teased:
>> Well, Theya isn't exactly healer material, is she?
David Dunham
>Sure she is -- she has more Heal Body spells than anyone else in the
>Varmandi clan.
So what does she do when a disease strikes?
>I'm not convinced 1 in 20 priests are Healers
Neither am I. But one in 25 or so works out.
>(BTW, sorry for picking on a German speaker for a case of noun
>capitalization, but as you probably do know, English does make the
>distinction.)
I was aware of that. I tried to reserve capital R for the RQ spell in the mechanical sense, but may not have been consistent.
>> If the resurrection follows the LBQ literally
>I see no reason why it should. The RQ spell has to be cast before the
>spirit heads for the Underworld (KoS.68, as has already been pointed out).
Isn't this effect more like a personalized Axis Mundi effect for this one spirit alone, a short cut back while it travels down to the Halls of the Dead? Nobody says that spirits are localized the same way physical beings are...
>Besides, the LBQ isn't a resurrection quest.
To the CA cult, its the quest of combating death. To Orlanth, LM, Issaries or Eurmal other meanings will be most prominent, but we were talking CA, weren't we?
>And the Seven Mothers quest wasn't really about resurrection, either
>(though the argument is stronger). It's about creating a goddess. I suspect
>none of the participants ended up with what they thought they were bringing
>back...
What's the difference with Resurrection? The deceased won't come back like the participants fondly remember him/her...
>> as a referee I am fed up with pounding reticent PCs into
>> near-death, only to see them jump up and tackle the next enemy after a
>> couple of healings
>One of the advantages of PenDragon Pass's "one healing per wound" rule
>(plus the Major Wounds of Pendragon).
I use a similar rule in RQ (with AiG), which allows one attempt at First Aid (reducing the shock damage of a wound, or not), one at a lesser healing (spirit Heal, sorcerous Treat Wounds - which in AiG is cast in enhancement of First Aid), and one High Magic healing (Heal Wound, Heal Body, sorcerous Regain Life, or a high-powered additional Spirit Magic Heal (6 or higher) which doesn't affect location hit points but general hit points in a lousy rate - 6 MPs per hit point, or worse, need to look that up).
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