RE: The Glorantha Digest V7 #344

From: Robert Stancliff <stancliff_at_ccgnv.net>
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 11:03:59 -0500


Martin Laurie:
> As for limits to heroic ability, there are limits. Onslaught is himself
> totally two dimensional as a hero.

Alex:
>Well, there's "Kills things", with the other dimension being...?

        My argument was much closer to the "which comic company is better: Marvel or DC" argument. DC allowed absurd characters who could run or fly at the speed of light, breath and talk in space, etc., the "let's do three impossible things before lunch" group. I see Onslaught firmly in this group, at least as far as the narration of the stories goes.

        I strongly prefer the defined "limits for heroes within the world" concept developed by Marvel to say that even the best hero can't exceed some believability threshold. You only get so many actions in ten seconds, people see you coming and only very 'weak' or surprised characters can't avoid you, if you are good at one skill you must be weaker at others to compensate, etc.

        Marvel did allow the occasional all-powerful character, but only to trigger stories about the heroes. Then the 'special' character goes away.

        Your last answer to me was that you wrote this absurdly short combat into the story to emphasize that Onslaught was unbeatable and that was the only important part. My response is that if the character must have absurd or unbelievable powers to prove your point, then your point is flawed beyond redemption and doesn't deserve to be made, especially as written.

        You asked if I thought the fight should have been written to be longer... The narration of a two or three round fight which drove the warriors from the room and left Onslaught standing over several maimed bodies would have had much more validity without needing much more text. You can take that as a yes.

>I see a whole series of styles in question. Is he ruthless, is he
>economical, does he go berserk, does his fly through the air, does he have
>weird magical effects, does he use two weapons etc? These things interest
>me as much as things like the penetration ability of an 120mm APFSDSDU
>round fired at the glacis of a T-72.

        Those aren't dimensions, they are tick mark on the straight line.

>Argrath is NOT that good at fighting.

        Funny, twice he fights Harrak to a standstill, the second was practically a divine battle.

Guy wrote:
>Idle curiosity is my only motivation here. Is there
>a Cult of Kero Fin, separate from her worship as
>Orlanth's mother? I presume that she has some
>kind of control over sylphs

        Kero Fin would probably be more of a Spirit Cult or a sub-Cult since there are not enough worshippers for her to have a full temple or multi-national following.

        She is no air goddess, but a temple of Orlanth is there, so they would command sylphs, not her.

>Are there intimate ties to the Earthshaker cult,
>or is that just "coincidental"?

        The mountains came after the earth, right? Lodril spread stone seeds, or something? Kero Fin should be moderately linked to Ernalda who is strongly linked to Maran Gor, especially through sub-cults.

>What would the function of such a cult be in Glorantha?

        While you could say Kero Fin has the Earth rune, especially as the mother of a race. I would consider mountains to be tied to stone/stasis and be copies of the spike/first mountain/law rune association. So runes of Earth and/or Stone would make sense, or is making sense god-learnerish? Stancliff


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