>Me>There's a difference between a follower of Orlanth Dragonfriend
> >and an Orlanthi using Dragon magics. An Orlanthi can use
> >dragon magics without having to be a member of the EWF cult
> >of Orlanth Dragonfriend.
>If the Dragon Magics are used outside the context of theistic magic,
>aren't they going to be at best "misapplied worship" and therefore a bit
>weak (which doesn't seem to be the case), or otherwise going to lose
>Argrath his theistic magic altogether.
Dragon magic is outside the normal magic rules of HW (c.f. the description of Dragon Magic in Anaxial's Record p156) and thus arguments based on those rules (i.e. invoking misapplied worship) do not apply. It's like using the rulebook to say that Uroxi can't learn talents or that Illuminates are restricted to one type of magic.
>If Argrath is using a theistic approach, then there has to be a divine
>patron involved, or he's worshipping dragons. That suggests an aspect of
>Orlanth, given Argrath's presumed devotion to him.
I'll leave Argrath out of this and restrict the case to an Orlanthi learning Dragon Magics. However I do not believe that even Orlanth Dragonfriend worshipped dragons theistically. Their method was contained in:
Orlanth and Arangorf were in the dance and it was
the perfect dance. They reflected each other, and
in the moments when one was frightening the other
was ready to be frightened, and when one was ready
to destroy, the other was ready to rebuild.
KoS p191
Since Ingolf uses a similar method (KoS p187, where he makes a _yrtgal_ with a dragon), I believe that Dragonfriends have a draconic self that does all their dragon magics for them in addition to their normal self. The secret behind Orlanth Dragonfriend was that having Arangorf as a draconic self was wholly compatible with their Orlanth magics. Having other dragons as a dragon-self would interfere with this.
>I grant you, there's other ways to explain matters, but hero questing to
>discover secrets of Orlanth Dragonfriend seems the most plausible,
>especially given a companion of Argrath at Dragonrise with the name
>Orlaront Dragonfriend.
But Argrath wasn't at the Dragonrise ('twas Kallyr) and there's other ways to become a dragonfriend other then joining the Cult of Orlanth Dragonfriend. Ingolf (KoS p186) is a dragonfriend even though he was never initiated into Orlanth.
>The secrets are presumably still be there in some tiny corner of
>the God Time, though perhaps well hidden by dragon-hating
>heroquesters.
The Blue Moon does not hate dragons.
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