>In game terms, this means two completely different sets of rules, and two
>completely different understandings of what is a god in Glorantha.
>If I'm going to play in Glorantha, I need to know which are those
>differences and how they translate to different sets of game rules.
Given that RQ3 already had different roolz for sorcerers (Malkioni) and theists, I fail to see what the problem is.
>But I'm not looking at this question in-character. It's me, Sergio, that's
>raising the question, not one of my PCs. And what I want to know is wheter
>I should look at gods as unpersonal and natural or as personalities.
You can choose whatever viewpoint you want depending on the circumstances. For history, I prefer to use the materialistic perspective whereas for examining the relationship of a particular person with the other side, I use the perspective of that person.
>We may apply the word god to two realities, nothing against it. But
>I want to know they're different, and how.
The Materialists in glorantha generally apply the word God to the Supreme Being, the Prime Mover and the Creator of the Universe. In many other mythologies, there are similar beings (such as the Hsunchen Earthmaker, the Pelandan Idovanus or the Cosmic Dragon of the Dragonewts) which can be identified by the materialist as the Supreme Being.
The Materialists are aware of the demonstrable existance of other supernatural entities that relate to natural processes. These are things like the Sun, the Wind, Death etc. In the eyes of most materialists, these entities are not worthy of worship because they are lower than the Supreme Being. They can observe that many people call these entities gods and worship them. The Materialists believe that since these entities are lower than the Supreme Being they are not worthy of being called gods.
>But [Mysticism]'s part of
>it, like shamanism. They may look similar, but they are supposed to be
>different. They are supposed to lead to different beliefs and magical
>practices. I want to know those differences within Glorantha, and how they
>lead to different fictional and game representations.
The best answer would be to look at the differences between mystics and shamans in the RW. Bone up on Buddhism and Shamanism. The Buddhist seeks to escape this world entirely whereas the Shaman seeks to interact with spirits in this world. That is the essense of the difference between the Mystic and the gloranthan Shaman.
>Or a theist, or a materialist? A first impression can be misleading (the
>first Portuguese that arrived in India thought that the hindus were
>christians, based on superficial similarities between the two religions).
Not only that but De Gama mistook a Indian statue of Krishna and his Mum for being the Virgin and Child and almost knelt in front of it and made a prayer before someone corrected him. There's also a tale of some Hindu they picked up at Mogadishu who prostrated himself when he saw a christian icon. All these gems and more in 'Empires of the Monsoons'.
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #58
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