Mucking about with people's minds....

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 18:30:23 +0100


<<SNIP VERY GOOD SPECULATION ABOUT MENTAL EFFECTS OF HERO-QUESTING>>
> Is Glorantha then a world in which people really don't care about
>these things? Or is there some way of squaring the prevalence of this
>kind
>of magic with the kind of attitude towards it which to me at least seems
>overwhelmingly natural?

I think part of the answer to this is that almost all magic in Glorantha (and certainly most HeroQuesting) affects not individuals but communities. One is not aware of one's own mind being changed but of the general mood of a community changing. One can always maintain one's own opinion against the spirit of the community but 'No-one can live alone'.

There are magics (the RQ3 Dominate spells for instance) that allow direct mind-to-mind control of another and yes they are regarded as abomination by all right thinking people. But I don't think they regard the prayers the trader says before he starts negotiations as offensive magic.

Perhaps one of the bad effects of becoming a Hero is that the average person stops being real to you. Perhaps they become puppets whose strings you pull in secret.

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