<<I believe that western atheists view the sorcery plane, platonic
world of idelas, etc to be part of the world as a whole.>>
This tallies with my emerging view of Dwarf magic. Fairly obviously the Hero Wars presentation of sorcery doesn't fit comfortably with what we know of Mostali society - religious wizards, saints, bonuses for a few fervently pious believers etc.
I'm coming to the view that the dwarfs see the world machine as a whole entity stretching over more than just the mundane plane. Although the machine is broken, it is not necessarily broken evenly across the different planes of existence. In places the appropriately skilled dwarf can trace the outlines of the perfection now lost on the mundane plane in what westerners call the sorcery plane. Dwarf magic will emphasise the use of these patterns to realign the mundane world with its ideal form.
The persistence of these traces of pre-Greater Darkness Glorantha inevitably plays a vital role in the important Dwarf function (Silver or Gold Caste?) of planning their society's progamme of repairs.
<< Sorcerers are surely aware of the existence of gods, spirits and
similar entities. These things demonstrably exist, so disbelief in
their existence isn't an option. Western atheists would simply deny
that such beings have any moral authority, or 'higher' nature than
anything else. They are spiritual entities, ys, but they can be
interacted with and are susceptible to the effects of sorcerous magic.
Ditto Dwarfs.
Having said this I will probably end up using something like the saintly node concept in dwarfish magic but with an "atheist in Simon's sense" veneer of mechanistic interaction rather than personal contact with a sacred being.
Richard Crawley
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