Weapons & Lunars

From: Jerome Blondel <bwbfc_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 18:41:11 -0000


Hi,

About 1H-Spear & Shield: Lot of very enlightening stuff. I'm reconciled with the Sun Dome Templars. But do the Heortlings use shield-walls? (... i think this was debated upon in some earlier digests and i missed it. Was the question settled? sorry for this lack of attention)

About moon-weapon subcult:
>>>> >:conquest of them. If so, any ideas what that weapon might be?

Mikko Rintasaari answered:
>> >The sickle

Me:
>>Probably the favourite weapon of Lunar priests and sorcerers - i like the
>>sickle. But in this context the moon weapon doesn't have to be a harmful
>>one: consider Kyger Litor's sandals and Huraya's scarf...

>That's what I was sort of going for. While the sicle can be used as a
>weapon it is primarily a harvesting tool. It's mystically and symbolically
>significant, and not just a weapon.

Harvesting tool. Why did i immediately think of the sickle as a weapon? :)

> What powers it would grant to Orlanth, I don't really have a
>clue. Parhaps it could be used to cut magic? (gaining a more powerful
>dismiss magic spell, in RQ thinking). Or harvest magic? (gaining
>Absorbtion).

I have no idea either. The idea of a mere spell doesn't really fit with a weapon stolen from Orlanth's greatest mythical enemy of the moment. I can't compare the enmity between Orlanth and the Red Goddess with the enmity between Orlanth and Kyger Litor frex. And yet the sandals of darkness are a powerful spell.

Did Orlanth steal a weapon from Yelm and his retinue? The Lightning Spear comes to mind. It comes from Lightning Boy (of the Fire Tribe?). But Lightning Boy is a minor god. Maybe a weapon subcult could be 'stolen' from a minor deity of the Lunar pantheon, possibly one who would make friend with Orlanth. Possibly a genuine, non-chaotic Lunar Tarsh goddess called Sickle Girl? (Lunars aren't all bad guys) This could work for a defensive spell like Absorption or something more exotic.

>>Also, the Lunar weapon may be tainted with Chaos (...)
>>And assuming an Illuminated Orlanthi Hero conquers the moon weapon and
>>creates a subcult, what would the consequences be?

>Parhaps the moonsicle weaponcult would give a
>power so useful that people would flock to gain it's strength (against the
>Lunars?).

Absorption or powered Dismiss Magic are too gentle for this IMo. Something roughly as powerful as the Lightning spear would probably attract lots of people.
Or maybe an anti-Lunar 'Disrupt the Glowline' that would negate the Glowline effects in a given area, though such a spell could hardly be stolen from a Lunar deity!

I remember of the reaching storm which i think is a nice example (the Orlanthi certainly had to pilfer the reaching moon secrets in order to create such a thing). Yet i don't know what the reaching storm would do. The reaching moon powers are useful because of the moon's cyclical problems, but what about storm? does it hide the moon so that it's black all the time for lunar magicians? (normal clouds probably wouldn't have such effect, but since it's magic...) Or maintain the cloud cover above the 50% required for a Thunderbolt? :) Even the Orlanthi would eventually crave for some blue sky!

The weapon probably shouldn't be specifically anti-lunar, but I'm short of ideas.

Also, i think one could consider an Orlanthi moon-weapon subcult (or other moon-pilfered magic possibly unrelated to a weapon subcult) on the same basis as Orlanthi sorcery, ie something really strange - but not impossible since the Aeolians do it.
In his writeup of the Aeolians, Joerg Baumgartner even suggests that the sorcerous Aeolians started out as a magical weapon subcult granting sorcery to its adherents. Quite a mighty weapon!

Thanks for the answers concerning the death of the Red Emperor and the fate of the Lunar Empire.

>Not really. Emperor 78 is killed and eaten by the allied army of the
>nomads

I'm not very learned in Lunar history, but for sure Emperor 78 means that there were *lots* of Red Emperors between 1628 and 1640...!

Looks like the 3rd age, like its predecessors, will finish in pain and large-scale destruction, death, bloodshed, Minarian Memory Suppress and mystical wreck. Lots of fun.:);)

Jerome



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End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #221


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