Peter quotes:
"Our Red Emperor is one in a long line of wizard-kings
responsible only to their mother, the Goddess of the
Red Moon. Our emperors are immortal in that no natural
death can slay them, though they can be slain in combat.
Because of our emperors' dedication and courage, many
have been slain in defending and expanding the Empire.
Each Emperor maintains the policies of his predecessor,
so that our emperor prospers as if ruled by a single
mind, which indeed is true."
Talking to the Moon Woman
Gods of Glorantha
Yep, I tried that one on Greg and he commented that the long line of wizard kings and the predecessors refers to the Masks, which are differentiated but still singular.
I guess there is enough ambiguity in that point to go either way.
>The Lunar Wane history has an incarnation {later known
>to be Magnificus) hiding in Doblian for 11 years (4/40
>- - 4/51). That means that he has returned immediately
>after his death at the hands of the Mad Sultan at a time
>when Sheng has sacked the Moon and killed half the Egi
>in the process.
This is still possible because it depends on how badly the Emperor is killed and his soul parts shattered to see how long it takes him to come back. Sometimes he can do it with very little help.
>Given that the dead Egi needed to be replaced before the
>Red Emperor could return, we have a chronological problem.
Not always
>Compounding this is the fact that one of the heroes who
>helped the Emperor at Kitor is Aronius Jaranthir, who
>became an Egi after helping the Emperor the second
>time around.
True
>This implies that he became an Egi after
>Kitor (Genertela Book p33 states he was active from 4/51
>to 4/55 (sic)), presumably when the Emperor recaptured
>Glamour.
According to Greg, Glamour never fell. I'd have to check sources on that.
>So it looks as though Magnificus is announcing
>his presence _before_ there's the necessary full component
>of Egi.
I see what you're getting at, but I don't think the Egi need be full, NOR do I think that they are the _only_ way for the Emperor to come back. There are other ways and means but often they take time and resources. Like the 7Ms quest to get the Goddess at First Chaos, the Emperor can be heroquested for by players and other heroes.
>I checked FS
>assiduously and found none, other than his initial genesis.
>Yet the same Fortunate Succession states:
This Rite of Rejuvenation has misled some people
to believe that there has been more than one Emperor
since then, and the foolish historians of Darjiin
insist on numbering them. Yet none of us who truly
know are fooled by outsiders and we can easily see
that the soul of Antirius has united the Masks, one
and all.
Fortunate Succession p64.
Or, that they are so wrong that its pointless to debate with such provincial idiots. That is how I took that passage. It seems that the DHs are sneering at the misunderstandings of the Darjiini.
>We
>also know in a footnote to the above paragraph, that the
>Darjiinians disagree on the number of Masks.
Yes, which doesn't contradict anything in my view. There is nothing wrong with there being _more_ masks than shown in FS. Your campaign or mine could very well show that.
>While the exact Darjiinian theory is not known, I do believe
>it to have some validity even while bearing in mind the
>singularity of the Emperor, given the known chronological
>shenanigans surrounding the Emperor before his third return.
Loophole away. I'm all in favour of this. If you can find a justification for a game idea in something Gregs written or I've written (or anyone else for that matter) dig away. There will always be ambiguity.
>If Dozkalos merely became the vessel for the Emperor what
>prevents anybody else from becoming a new vessel for the
>Emperor?
Because it wasn't a vessel. He was part of his genesis. He was the initial physical body but his spirit and the physical part of him were unified into the whole of the _new_ entity, Takenegi. After that, he reforms as Takenegi till Sheng comes and then he changes. Some say as a response to the Egi being offed, others to the changing nature of the Empire.
>Although they might think that by agreeing to
>the ritual that they become the Emperor, the Emperor really
>takes over their likeness and subsumes their insignificant
>personality.
This would be very similar to the Pharaoh methinks.
Martin Laurie
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