Re: Celestial Court

From: David Weihe <dweihe_at_adelphia.net>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 11:39:44 -0400


Gian Gero wrote:
> Can someone in modern Glorantha worship a god of the
> Celestial Court? I mean, as a very rare or unique
> option (like the worshipping of a great god without
> the intercession of a subcult),

Can *someone*? Sure. From the House campaign at Chaosium, we have an example of someone worshipping his gold, without any proper rites or targeted entity, and getting an actual result from it. Weird stuff happens! Especially when close to an Age-ending conflict like the Hero Wars.

OTOH, no one is going to get a reliable connection to a Celestial Court entity, any more than to one known to be "killed by the PreDark" even if the worshippers had somehow found a fairly complete written description of the Gods Age rites. You might contact another entity which _claims_ to be the original god, and only later turns out to be an imposter. You might contact the current Rune Holder (to use the GL term), either the main god by misapplied worship or a hitherto unknown aspect that other worshippers have neglected. You might send the worship to all the local gods associated with that rune. You even might send mana into the local Chaos (or at least Disorder) field, strengthening the local gorps and broo (or even the clan trickster). Or, it might work *that* *one* *time*.

This is not going to be something done by "ordained" or properly taught priests of any god or community, since they "know" that it is, at best, a waste of worship, or at worst, actually counter-productive. They will be able to tell you stories of misguided fools who died or worse trying it, also. It might be done by some desperate group, lead by irregulars with too much knowledge for their own good, who are willing to try ANYTHING to solve their current problems before they and theirs are wiped out (like a certain group in Torang did against the Carmanian Empire) or forced into a blasphemy (like "the new God Learners" did rather than give up and worship the Lunar Empire's acceptable Breeze gods).

> could a modern
> Gloranthan meet an initiate of (for example)
> Kargan-Tor?

This is easier. Just journey back to a point in the Storm or late Solar Age, where Kargan Tor still lived, and make sure that you contact Him, rather than one of his unnamed students (who might turn out to be, say, Shargash or pre-Severence Humakt). My guess is that the only way to get anything other than knowledge back from that section of the Hero Plane is to steal it from the "now"-dead deity, rather than be peacefully awarded something from Him which then fades to nothing as you cross the barrier back into the Inner World. That is just my guess, rather than written Canon, though, and I might be influenced too much by recent episodes of the Outer Limits rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel.

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