> 1. In the Tarsh War book we hear about the Lunar College of magic and its
> organization into Minor and Major Classes. Several of the major classes
> are named (The Chronomancers, The Crater Makers, the Full Moon Corps),
> but I'm wondering if anyone has done the same with the Minor Classes. I'm
> not looking for rules or details necessarily, just color to build from.
Actually, the Chronomancers ("Comet Seers"), Crater Makers and Full Moon Corps are *not* the Major Classes of the LCM.
All the names of Lunar magic regiments we used in "Tarsh War" come from the board game "Dragon Pass" (aka "White Bear and Red Moon"). The full list from the battalia is:
Major Classes 1-2 Minor Classes 1-4 Blue Moon School Crater Makers Comet Seers Spell Archers
There are also two major combat units, the Crimson Bat and the Full Moon Corps. The Red Emperor himself is also an ass-kicking magician of no mean ability.
Chris Gidlow, who wrote "Tarsh War" (including its essays on the Lunar Way of War), also has a piece in "Questlines 2" about a graduate of Minor Class Two returning to give a speech at a formal college dinner. This includes footnotes detailing the size and organisation of the LCM.
I know Greg Stafford recently believed that the classes of the LCM took their names from the previous Lunar goddesses -- see my article on "The Lunar Pantheon", in "The Rough Guide to Glamour", for more details of these. Chris Gidlow preferred the quasi-Stalinist sound of "Minor Class Four", etc. (as you'll see from Tarsh War), but he does believe in taking hostages to fortune.
> How do geases actually appear to people in Glorantha? Are they obvious
> or inobvious? a secret? a source of speculation?
I am pretty sure that, at least at Initiate level, a geas is granted to the initiate in the temple by a Light Priest. The geas is thus known to the officiating priest as well as the initiate, and probably quite publicly too (unless your initiate really really wants to hide his piety under a bushel). It is *not* known to everyone that initiate meets, unless he announces it -- though he'd be wise to do so, frex, if his companions propose to buy him a helmet, or a chicken, or a sponsored night at Uleria's.
You'd be mad to announce your geases to strangers and foreigners. But telling comrades, colleagues and co-religionists makes all kinds of sense. Remember, too, that geas-giving cults tend to be Truth-rune cults, so "pretending" to have a geas that you don't would constitute lying about a fundamental facet of your religious being, and probably piss off your god no end.
If you are yourself a Rune Lord or Priest, you may be able to take on extra gifts and geases without priestly intercession. In this way, you could avoid automatically notifying the priesthood (and, perhaps, the world) of your new geases. But I'm still not sure, within the confines of your temple, of why you'd want to do this.
> In some instances a priest might be able to use an assigned prohibition
> to hold someone back, point out a flaw or balance the community.
In others, they might be downright political or corrupt in their assignment. "Why are all Yelmalions blond and brown-eyed?" "Because those who aren't get Total Celibacy!"
> I checked Cults of Terror and learned that the Bat has to
> eat the equivalent of 25 average people a week each Freezeday.
At "peacetime" levels. This lower level was not re-stated in the RQ3 write-up of the Cult of the Crimson Bat in Tales #8, however, which appears to be Keith's source.
Since we know there's a Bat Cave on the Red Moon (Tales #16), however, it seems obvious from this that the Bat is not constantly at large, which makes all the speculations look rather unnecessary.
Nick
:::: web: <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke>
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