> Your points make a lot of sense, but they're also based on an
> as-yet-unproven assumption that people really do want to play
> Storytelling-focussed games more than they do Combat-focussed games.
Perhaps more relevant is that more people seem to want to write and publish story-focussed as opposed to combat-focussed gaming and background materials. It is, after all, easier to home-grow a broo-bash than the Hero Wars or the Lightbringers Quest.
> I would think there should be a few examples of "good" chaos (by
> definition, anything is possible!)
Both Nysalor and the Red Goddess leap to mind... :-)
> The Ritual of the Net by Arachne Solara is NOT by any means a definition
> of Gloranthan nature. AS cobbled together a plan to save the universe
> (Glorantha) forcing the (natural) gods to accept the existence of the
> unnatural into their world purely as a matter of survival.
I think this confuses two or three things. The climax of Godtime involves:
(1) The Ritual of the Net (2) The Great Compromise (3) The Birth of Time
In (1), the gods all work together to trap and destroy the Devil. In the process, Arachne Solara is impregnated by Kajabor as she devours him -- she is, after all, a female spider. It is uncertain whether the other gods realise this has happened -- certainly, it remains somewhat obscure in myth.
In (2), the gods all agree to patch things up, limit their involvement in the world, cyclically repeat the actions defined in Godtime, and identify Chaos as "not of the world", "the enemy which must be fought and suppressed". They swear this upon the just-born, still-hidden child of Arachne Solara.
In (3), Arachne Solara's child Time, begotten by Entropy upon Nature, becomes the ruling deity of the New Age. He is either revealed from (KoS) or concealed by (CoT/WF) the Net.
Time's birth in Hell is always "concealed" from the other gods behind the Net -- in the Arachne Solara section of the Cosmology (CoT p.15 = WF p.74; similar to KoS p.89), the word "conceal" is used twice to describe Time vis a vis the other gods.
Now: in (1) the gods unanimously agree to fight chaos. In (2) they define Chaos as a foe, unacceptable, unnatural. And as for (3), although *we* all know of Time's chaotic parentage, it is fair to suspect that this is mythically obscure to most Gloranthans -- and stated in myth to be hidden from the gods when they swore their oath.
I do not see in this any tendency by the gods to "accept the existence of the unnatural". The chaos things left in the world at the Dawning were paltry remnants, "struggling to hide in the forgotten places of the world." To the gods, and their mortal worshippers, the war was won and all that's left was the mopping-up.
And so to Dorastor... :-)
> A lot of the comments about Humakt are from an Orlanthi clansman POV,
> i.e. those cool hard dudes with the big swords are real handy to have
> around when we want to bash up (insert enemy name here),
I *really* like the attitude in Jeff Richards' "Taming of Dragon Pass" game (seen in Enclosure #1), where Our Heroes have a somewhat pathological tribe of Humakti, led by Mad-Blood Malan, living right next door to them. That gives rise to a rather different "Orlanthi clansman POV" :-)
> It is interesting though, that although (technically) a Wind Voice can
> command a Storm Khan, he can't command a Sword...
Greg has said that the Sword of Humakt is the fifth of Orlanth's Five Magic Weapons, and can be commanded by an Orlanthi tribal King. It's "a magic sword that fights by itself", see?
> You can see why these guys get the top jobs in the bodyguard line...
Absolutely. Though I doubt anyone lofty enough in Orlanthi society to have bodyguards, thanes, carls, etc. is particularly worried that a passing Wind Lord or Storm Voice will command their loyalty away from him in the first place. It's fun to be a Thane of Orlanth Rex...
>> [Jaldon's] strange, contradictory and poorly-documented history and >> attributes are exactly what you'd expect from irresponsible manipu- >> lation of the Hero Plane for short-term political ends having to do >> with attempts to seize Prax for the Middle Sea Empire presumably.
> Jaldon was active in 940, well after the God Learners were booted
> out of Prax and when they had more important things to worry about
> (such as the Closing and the Zistorite War). What is wrong with the
> notion of Jaldon being a barbarian hero that we have to manufacture
> a God Learner origin for him?
Indeed, Jaldon's "strange, contradictory and poorly-documented history and attributes are exactly what you'd expect from" a nomad culture-hero claimed by many tribes, aren't they?
>> "Normal people consider all worshippers of this cult to be mindless >> brutes, barely human, certainly deranged, and absolutely dangerous. >> These opinions are correct."
> Those two lines are favorites of mine...however, if I recall correctly,
> don't these lines come from the (paraphrase) "Cult's Role in Society"
> section (i.e. the section where how the cult is perceived *by outsiders*
> is placed?)? I place importance on the third word of the first line and
> on the humorous intent of the second line, which seems to me more of a
> punch-line than a factual statement...
They're from "Nature of the Cult", subheading "Social/Political Position and Power". This section is not about how outsiders perceive the cult, it's about what the cult *is*. No other cult write-up in CoP seems to use this section to spread jokes and misinformation about the basic nature of the cult it describes. Why assume Storm Bull's been singled out?
>> Of course this has *absolutely* no effect on the "actual" number of >> Lawspeakers, Swords, Khans and Bullies in Glorantha.
> Ok, ok. But as you know, my response to that would be: "How can you have
> an 'actual' number of anything in something that doesn't 'actually' exist?
> The only important number is how many interact with PCs..."
I am surprised you forgot the Smiley after that sentence. With it, it would be a nice piece of self-deprecating humour. Without it, it is an inane and fatuous cop-out.
> Of course, I do agree that published material could do a _better_ job of
> both explaining 'normal' Praxian social interaction, and facilitating
> actually playing it that way (to whatever degree suits one personal
> taste).
I'm a great fan of "What My Father Told Me" -- the material there about how herds, tents etc. are organised is great fun, well thought out. What I'd *really* like to see, of course, is a Sazdorf-style write-up of a "typical" Praxian clan, from one of the Top Nations (say, the dominant Sable Tribe, as opposed to Ostrich or Agimori): leaders, demographics, herd size, secrets, history, annual activities, weird knowledge, preferred routes and grazings, spirit cults, ancestors, all that kind of stuff.
Cheers, Nick
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