Divine Scams from Joerg Baumgartner on 2001-10-09 (Glorantha Digest Vol 08)

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 21:30:13 +0000

Donald Oddy
>> Does anyone have examples of Gloranthan religious scams? I can't
>> quite see how they would work in a society which expects to relate
>> to its gods. In the west I can see someone inventing a saint and
>> collecting donations from the gullible to touch the relics which
>> cure all sorts of diseases.

Bo Rosen:

> Wasn't there a Lunar pyramid game back in RQ days? I can't remember the > details though. I'm not sure, but MOB may have been guilty of it.

The Church of Immortality, with its speciality ritual "transfer youth". A variation on Tapping, IIRC. MOB at least was guilty of promoting it by making Maculus the Monitor a former member, but I think it originally occurred in Genertela Book.

The God Learner False Gods of Umathela probably are the biggest example.

Godking worship of unworthy candidates might fall into this category.

Generally, you need a source of magic which you can give back to the worshippers who transfer their magic through worship to you. If somebody works out how to do so with only a fraction of the magic channeled to himself _and_ satisfying the worshippers (at least for a while), I suppose the divine scam works.

I wouldn't call this a cosmic scam, though.