> They also seemed like the researchers and scientists of Glorantha.
In the sense that they're reductionists, certainly.
> This is a baffling chance to me. The laws of Malkion (or Zzabur) are the
> laws of the whole world. They rule both the inner and the outer worlds. Do
> they not? Don't these same laws allow to wizards and sorcerers to
> understand the secrets of the inner world (natural science, chemistry)?
But sorcerors aren't the 'scientists' of the chemical world, they're the 'scientists' of magic. Since the otherworld is, pretty much by definition, where magic comes from, where do you expect them to study?
> Kabbalism is my favorite.
Kabbalism clearly assumes an otherworld, and one which sounds to me a lot like the Sorcery Plane...
> Are you saying that the wizardly and sorcerous
> order of HW have _only_ the few spells that are listed in their
> grimoire?
The HW lists are likely not to be the full grimoire, but if they don't have a grimoire in the game-world that includes the desired effect, they're hosed. (Until they can research it for themselves.)
> The poor fools. The theists will eat them alive with their
> powerful and flexible feats. (which some people seem to say can be
> interpreted just like a game of scrabble, anything goes)
Some people talk a lot of nonsense... Logically, sorcerors would have greater facility to change their spells in 'parameterised' ways: if you can effect 10 people with a spell, chances are with a bit work you can make it effect a different number, or otherwise change its effect in 'regular' ways. This may be less possible, or rather less reliably possible, with theistic feats. OTOH, theists can ad lib according to the 'gist' of a Feat, which sorcerors cannot (and would regard as a shocking misuse, like trying to hammer in a screw with the handle of a pipe-wrench). HW doesn't really capture this directly, I agree, but that's what we pay narrators the big bucks...
> > Sorcery is based on the manipulation of known laws and philosophical
> > principles. These are sometimes referred to as entities. It does not make
> > them gods and more than the Kabbalistic notion of Chokhma is a god.
>
> But the sorcerers are dependant on these entities for their spells.
I don't see why you're getting so caught up on this point. A completely atheistic sorceror (a Brithini, for example), wouldn't even see them as 'entities' in any meaningful sense. Rather as ideas, principles, and natural forces. If they have a founder, whose 'node' they utilise, think of this not as something they in any sense kow-tow to, but as a proved tradition they follow in. A set of magical formulae that get one to a given 'point' in the space of the otherside. Even absent any 'school' structure at all, every adapt is going to access the Otherworld in a manner based on that of his master, which is in turn based of that of the sorceror _he_ was apprenticed too, etc. Think of these nodes as being essentially _any_ way of understanding what's happening on the Other Side, according to the particular belief system of that sorceror.
Cheers,
Alex.
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #782
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