>Basically I don't think Greg's talk about the lost "secret of the
>Godlearners" means that there is a single idea that was their secret.
>Nothing in the like of "the world is really X" or "all the gods are Y".
There really is a Forbidden Secret for which God-Learners were killed. This appears to be different from the RuneQuest Sight that the original Jrusteli used (which allowed them to see the world as an interaction of runes), which appears to be linked in some way to See gift that Kallyr bestows in the Sky Ship scenario (Gathering Thunder p55). Another secret that they had was to Do the Impossible while a fourth was the Mixing Magic Secret, the ability to weave all four forms of magic into one whole.
The RuneQuest Sight occurs as early as 500 ST and is now lost. The Do Impossible Secret first makes an appearance in the Battle of Tanian's Victory (718 ST). I think it survives in some form or another in Modern Malkionism as Ecclesiastical Dispensations or Indulgences - use of these magics is heavily controlled and restricted to moral rather than physical laws.
The Mixing Magic Secret is said to have been discovered around 700 ST (Arcane Lore p10) but I think a date of around 800 ST is more likely given that a) the Stygian Autarchy, which was a source of God Learner insight wasn't conquered until 750 ST, b) that the discovery of a secret that undermines montheism sits rather oddly with the attitude of the God Learners in that period, and that c) the Arcane Lore text speaks of a century of dominance by the Jrusteli after the secret's discovery (which fits an 800 ST date better than a 700 ST date).
Given that the discoverer of the Mixed Magic Secret is unknown, I think it likely that the Mixed Magic Secret is the Forbidden Secret.
>I think the Godlearner's secret is the the secret revelation of their
>comprehensive magic system, parallel to the Humakti secret of
>"Death", or the Orlanthi secret of "Be Air".
Two different levels of secrets here - the Orlanthi "Be Air" Secret is a Great Secret while Humakt's Death Secret is an "ordinary" secret. Secondly, not every secret is a heroquest secret - Kallyr teaches the See ability in the Skyship scenario without the Heroes having to learn anything like a HQ secret.
>What was the unique thing about Godlearners? I think in the RQ days the
>referenses were usually made to their heroquesting prowess. Switching gods
>together, infiltrating cultures and stealing magical secrets. Molding not
>just the hero-plane but the Godplane to their whim, at least to some
>extent.
Arcane Lore gives several heroquesting techniques: Clarification (which Harmast used to change the myth variant _after_ he had entered the Heroworld), Ranging (which Arkat used to roam the Heroplanes to kill people and take their stuff), Mutation (which the God Learners used to change the Heroworld).
The infiltration of cultures and theft of their secrets stems from the Jrusteli's own society. When Serozos learned how to speak to God, the Jrusteli quickly had all their laws approved by their Oracles. Now the problem was each Jrusteli City had their own laws approved by their own oracles and they still differed. In an attempt to sort out which Law was best, the Jrusteli subjected their Oracles to the truth contests which they soon learned to use against foreign Saints and Essences and finally Gods and Spirits (with the discovery of the Mixing Magic Secret).
>Here's a challenge to us all. Describe the Godlearner's secret in HQ terms
>as a magical secret.
The Mixing Magic Secret I think involves far more than just being able to use all sorts of magic at concentrated costs. With the use of this HQ secret, a God Learner would know the ways to transform a given magic into a magic of another type.
For example, a God Learner seeking a new magic from a grimoire would use the Mixing Magic Secret to treat his grimoire as an affinity and improvise a feat from that. He could also transform a spell or a feat into a spirit to obtain an always on augment or to add the full magic rating onto a chosen ability for that extra oomph. But once he's transformed magics and then used them in a one-use fashion (ie used a magic as a blessing or as a released spirit), then he must perform a ritual transform in order to use the magic again.
As for the difficulty of a transform, I suppose it depends on the magic's original ability, with a -5 to change of magic within a given form (like a spell to a blessing), -10 to change magic forms (like transforming a spell to a spirit or feat, or a grimoire to an affinity) and -20 for difficult stuff (like deriving a grimoire from a spell or a secret from an affinity).
--Peter Metcalfe
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