The Bat from Bernuetz, Oliver: WPG on 1998-08-24 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Bernuetz, Oliver: WPG <Bernuetz.Oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 17:55:00 -0400

Well after having babbled on about the Bat I decided to check my sources when I got home. I checked Cults of Terror and learned that the Bat has to
eat the equivalent of 25 average people a week each Freezeday. This is its
maintenance level and keeps the Bat on the mundane plane. During wartime
it must be fed twice a week and ten times as many people (each time). This
doesn't count any people the Bat's rune lord's allied spirits have to off each
week (one apiece). I checked Elder Secrets and all I got was a description
of the Bat.

25 is a lot more reasonable number than whatever the heck I thought other
people were talking about but I still don't think you'd see the Bat in Balazar
because of the low population density. As far as Dorastor goes I don't think
you'd see the Bat there either because the Emperor is said to fear what would happen should the people controlling the Bat turn to Chaos. Since Dorastor's a good place for this to happen I suspect the Bat steers clear
of there.

Allan Wallace said:

>I think that a souls shortage would be a terrifying and potentially
brilliant
>campaign theme. Humakti running around pruning wasted lives to put the
souls
>back in line for rebirth, and above all, scrag the bat. With the real
world
>situation this all may be way too close to home for most folks. I'd
like a
>world with infinite resources to escape to.

I think the problem I would have with this is this kind of idea is that it's too big for
a campaign (IMHO). It'd be like having a party in a modern day campaign battling global warming or nuclear proliferation. How would they realize
something like a soul shortage was occuring? It'd be as easy to prove as
global warming. Who's counting the souls? Are people killed by the Bat "gone" never to return? Is this true for vampires and other soul suckers?
Makes them all the more terrible. (The people I game with always thought the description in Call of Cthulhu stating that once your Power hit
zero you were gone as if you'd never been to be one of the most terrible things about the game).

(I kind of like (in a twisted sense) the idea of Humakt vigilantes running
around bumping off people they thought were a waste of space but this would get put down faster than the Lead Cross movement IMO).

Killing the Bat is a job for mega-heros. Arkat is said to have slain it in
the First Age but I don't know who killed it at Whitewall.

Personally I think Glorantha has a long way to go to reach the level of sentient beings who lived during the Gods Age so I don't think there'd be a
soul shortage for a long time. (If you're into recycling souls that is). If I
understand what I've read correctly everyone who reaches Solace in Malkioni belief is gone forever. Where do their new souls come from? An interesting question.

Oliver D. Bernuetz
www.geocities.com/timessquare/realm/5545 bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca

End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #144