> Also if I do not accept the idea of a god and "the antithesis of a
> god" as black and white; *especially* in Glorantha. Are you saying
> that the Devil is 100% non-divine in essence? That is an absurd
> implication !
I would say that Chaos and the Gods are polar opposites, as Black is to White, and that the Devil is 100% *anti*-divine in essence: not that he is wholly mundane, powerless, or something poxed like that. I don't see what makes this position absurd, and I can't see how it contradicts what we are told about the Devil and Chaos in our usual sources (like CoT, ItG, UL, Prosopaedia, etc.). Wakboth is more than "the divine son of Ragnaglar and Thed" -- look at any account of what the Unholy Trio did.
> What would happen, if a character travelled either deliberately or
> by accident to another universe, multiverse or what ever? What powers
> would change, would he/she change any? Magic or non-magic? If the
> character was like an Elf, would they transform into a human, or
> disappear, or what?
First up, "official" Glorantha is kinda isolated from other universes and game-worlds. Although there's relics of a more free'n'easy attitude from the late Seventies and early Eighties (e.g. the list of gates to other worlds in WF#14; the character Redbird, a DnD magic-user in Glorantha; the notorious vikings in Greg's house campaign), the general approach nowadays is that these things don't happen, or aren't known to happen, and if they do happen they certainly don't feature in history or mythology in any recognisable fashion.
That said, the "Intro to Glorantha" book tells you to do your own thing on its first and last pages, so you certainly shouldn't feel restricted by this. Chaosium house campaigns have included intruders from other worlds in Glorantha, genre crossovers (Zorak Zoran Death Lords armed with blasters from WoW), etc. And it's anyone's guess where Belintar came from -- the future, the past, another universe, who knows? (I'll stick by my John Carter theory for now).
Most Gloranthans possess magical powers, often derived from their gods. If a Gloranthan found himself unable to contact his god (e.g. if he travelled to another universe where that god didn't exist), he'd lose a load of his powers; at the very least, he couldn't regain rune spells until without worshipping successfully, and I doubt this can be done outside of Glorantha. Spirit magic powers might survive in part, perhaps weakened or elided -- Glorantha is a more magical world than many. Wizards' magic derives from the Invisible God's Creation -- in a universe He didn't create, will this still have power? Even unaligned sorcerors may need knowledge of the true nature of Glorantha -- what happens to their magic in a world without Runes?
Creatures dependent on Gloranthan magic or Gloranthan physics to survive might well have trouble outside that universe. In the script for the never-produced (and non-Gloranthan) RuneQuest Movie, the Dragonewt character lost the power of speech when the Magic went away. Perhaps a Gloranthan Elf would gradually become *more* "plant-like" (you know what I mean -- rooted, immobile, seasonal?) outside of Glorantha. There's no way an Aldryami would become a meat-thing (or, contrariwise, an ersatz Tolkien elf become a vegetable) just because different game worlds use "elf" to mean different things. And it seems strange to permit mixing between multiverses but then restrict the species that are able to mix'n'match -- this looks more like a "different rulesets" problem than a sensible constraint to work within.
This really has to be down to individual GMs. I suggest looking at GURPS, which includes rules and guidelines for deciding how to mix genres; if you could possibly find them, the old Chaosium supplements "Worlds of Wonder" (BRP rules for fantasy, science fiction and superhero crossover games) and/or "QuestWorld" (non-Gloranthan RQ using Gloranthan cults in a different setting) might be useful.
As for what happens to weird alien magics coming into Glorantha -- most folk I know would say, "Kill Chaos!" and damn the explanations. I'd be careful if I were you...
Cheers, Nick
PS: those WF#14 Gates, in full.
Q: "Dear Rurik, the rules to Stormbringer indicate that there are other planes in RuneQuest. How can these be reached using the RuneQuest rules?"
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