>From abf Fri Jul 2 22:32:52 1999
To: glorantha_at_chaosium.com
Subject: Re: Vingan myths and magics
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David Dunham conducts an elementary channelling exercise:
> There are zero published myths of Vinga, short of some amusing fan-written
> ones.
That was an almost Martinesque comment, in its Steveness, David...
> I don't believe Vinga is a large enough cult to have subcults (though I
> think there is regional variation within a culture).
Depends what you mean by 'subcult'; RQ managed to use it in about three distinct senses, and people don't stop there, either. I think it's best to keep separate in one's mind (and ideally in one's terminology, too, but that's likely a lost cause by now) the ideas of worship of an aspect, which may or may not always be present in a particular worship location, and whether a cult is in its hierarchy, initiatory practice, temple layout, or whatever, divided into separate, semi-separate, or separarable branches of some sort or another.
Plus of course there was the famous 'subservient cult', and 'associated cult that's practically/locally a "subcult"', and IIRC at least one other that seemed mainly to be a cult writeup convention...
> Thus, some places might emphasize Vinga the Scout, while others
> emphasize Vinga the Fighting Woman.
Those would be 'subcults' in (at least?) one of the above senses.
> Unless you're of the belief that each and every spell is a separate
subcult
> (and some days talking to Greg I get this impression from him).
What's a separate 'spell' is even more of a game artifact than what's a separate 'subcult', frankly. I won't hurt my head by starting to think about what's a 'separate myth'...
Jane Williams:
> Still, this is really a question of game balance, not mythology, and it
> doesn't look too bad to me. But I know I'm heavily biased in Vinga's
> favour, so I *would* say that. Anyone want to tell me that Vinga's quite
> powerful enough without giving her scouting abilities as well?
Depends what you mean by 'scouting'; I think it makes sense in the context of the game (we don't know what's north of the Creek, let's go there, loot what we find, get jumped by bandits and 'newts, and cause some mayhem), unless I've been brainwashed by having Vingans on my clan ring persistently agigate for exploration...
I'd say the only real Game Artifact at work here is any implication that this is some crucially different part of Vinga's magic that isn't also accessible through Orlanth Adventurous (the term "the Warrior" seems less apt, here, and indeed OA less of a Quaint RQism). It seems perfectly reasonable to me to suppose that some clans have a tradition of gaining these magics through Vinga, some through Orlanth, and some through Issaries. (Maybe even some through Hedkoranth, though he seems to be yer more traditional "bash 'em over t'head" sort of "Adventurer".)
Cheers,
Alex.
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