Jane on geases:
>How about this? The geasee (new word?), with the help of a priest if
needed, goes
>through a ritual- meditation, trance, HQ, whatever -that puts them in touch
with one
>of the Truths of their deity. At the end of the experience, they have
effectively
>aligned one part of their soul with said deity, and a certain pattern of
behaviour,
>characteristic of the deity, has become obvious and natural to them. Maybe
>Yelmalio's relationship with birds became clear to them, particularly birds
and Fire,
>and the idea of eating a bird in Fire Season now seems unnatural and unclean.
I disagree with this. After all, if I had the geas "never eat Brussel Sprouts", it's something I'd have no trouble abiding by, because (to me) the idea of eating a sprout is unnatural and unclean. Geases should be all about resisting temptation: that plump, succulent roast chook should look, smell and (if one weakens) taste just as delicious in Fire Season as at any other time. The idea behind a geas is that by denying something dear to you, you become closer to your god. Think of Lent. And the more sincere and dramatic the promise, the greater the gift should be. Compare "Lord Humakt, in your honour I swear I shall ever onwards only enter battle bollock naked and armed with a small paring knife" to "Great Humakt, in your name I vow to abjure strawberry jam on claydays and alternate windsdays".
>If they break the geas, what attacks them is their own guilt. In the case
of a Humakti
>with a Sever Spirit handy, this can be lethal. A Yelmalion discovering that
nice stew
>had chicken in it might throw up, might choke (to death?), might even take
his own
>life in remorse. Or something.
All of this I go along with. But this would only work if the geasee (ta, Jane) has free will, rather than a magical compulsion to conform.
James Turner on what the High Llama nomads think:
>The lunars are bad because they like chaos, but then the Pol Joni are
>bad because they ride horses, the pure horse people are worse and the
>Pavics/Sun domers are softies and we wouldn't mind looting their city.
Aha, so our rune lords might wear dresses and our peasants might be doped to the eyeballs on Hazia, but just try getting past our adroitly dodging templars and their shield walls, nomad scum! The Sun Domers ain't survived in Prax for nothing (er, we'll just ignore the years of periodic nomad subjugation implicit in the Light List).
Cheers,
MOB
9 Parker Street, Richmond 3121, Victoria, Australia Home Telephone: +61-3-9428-9048
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