Re: Divine identities: Balumbasta/Lodril

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 16:45:07 +0100 (BST)


Chris Lemens:
> Another argument is that they are a defiant entity,
> like Storm Bull. I don't like this argument, because
> the label seems to indicate that the entity, out of
> its own power, decides to defy the rules. This does
> not really describe either Balumbasta or Lodril.

It does. Which is why it's a sucky name. (And one reinforced by the descriptions of such entities to date, which seem to deliberately conflate issues of different classes of otherside being, and different class of magical practice.) More constructive to think in terms of the four magic systems being a useful descriptive device, but not the whole story. The "defiant" entities are simply those which, rather than breaking some cosmic by-law, are those hapless beings which just happen to be poorly described by this "take" on the world.

> So, for example, was the Lodril that the trollss
> captured really Lodril, Balumbasta, or other? And do
> we have to decide?

Only insofaras one feels the need to theorise on such matter on the Digest (I'm assuming this thread would be a sacking offence on the hero-wars list...), or, if one can conceive of the circumstance, it comes up in play. In which latter case, we can at least narrow down in what senses we want to answer the question. Are we trying to "connect up" (apparently different) places on the Other Side? Are we trying to work out if initiation to one entity gives one an "in" to the other? Are we trying to discern cultural viewpoints? Or identify common physical manifestations? Are we playing Glorantha, the God Sim, in which we want to quantify the amount of collateral worship that "flows" between the two? All potentially interesting questions, but each quite possibly with different answers, which is somewhat obscured by casual talk of "the same entity". (I realize there's a danger here of sounding like a Douglas Adams character. "What do we mean by 'is'?")


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