At 05:59 AM 4/11/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>> If all gloranthan diseases are spirits, then is everyone on the sorcery
>> plane perfectly healthy?
>
>Taking the misapplication rules literally (which I'm normally loathe to
>do) the apparent consequence is that the non-animist otherworlds would
>be relatively "healthy" (as the majority of diseases would get penalties),
>whereas non-animist _mundane world_ magic is at a disadvantage, possibly,
>if your theist devotee or Western liturgist is less effective in getting
>rid of disease caused by spirit infestation.
Alex's reply makes Mike's question more clear for me.
A couple of points.
First, disease spirits are not all entities to bring sickness to humans.
Many of the diseases are "regular" spirits without bodies that are
affecting humans. Sure, Mallia is "Mother of Diseases," but in part this is
because she has given incorporeal entities access to the world so that
they, in their immaterial and unhappy state, inhabit humans and create the
state of Not-ease (i.e.-disease).
Yes, some diseases are spirits whose purpose, meaning and intent is to
cause physical harm to human beings. But others are just lost immaterial
entities doing their best to survive in what is (to them) the horrid world.
Similar to a previous post, a high fever may be a fire spirit or a summer
spirit that inhabits a person, a tumor might be a growth spirit or a dirt
spirt that has found anew (but inappropriate) home in a person. Asthma
might be from a dust spirit or a constricting spirit inhabiting a person.
The Spirit World itself is not especially unhealthy compared to the other
Otherworlds. It is certainly different from them in that it has no internal
boundaries (i.e. The God World has various places within it that are
separated by barriers (generally 5W3 in strength), like the inside of a
god's house separated from its surrounding territory; or the all-pervasive
separation of the Sorcery Planes into separate 'places.' (once again,
separated by additional 10W3 barriers)). But since even disease spirits are
there, in their natural environment (ie, without bodies) then they are
quite different from those that are in the Middle world.
I sense also a misunderstanding of the Otherworlds. Disease spirits are
NEVER found in the God World or the Sorcery Planes. (Orlanthi "never"
there.) The Otherworlds are separate worlds, without overlap or
interconnections (that is a very important point,by the way: there are NO
ways to go from one Otherworld directly to another one (And I mean 100%
NONE). The only way is to go through the human Middle World. The Middle
world of humans is the place where the overlap occurs.
Greg Stafford, greg_at_glorantha.com
Issaries, Inc. 900 Murmansk St., Suite 5; Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 452 1648 Fax: (510) 302 0385
Publisher of Hero Wars, Roleplaying in Glorantha See our site at:
<www.glorantha.com>
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