From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 24 Sep 1993, part 2
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Sender: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
Precedence: junk
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---------------------
From: s.phillips@gla.ac.uk
Subject: the Dart Wars
Message-ID: <23_Sep_93_17:19:53_A100D4@UK.AC.GLA.VME>
Date: 23 Sep 93 16:19:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1809
Hello from Sam'n'Harry
----------------------
Any info on these. They aren't ringing any bells..
(Assume we know nothing - as we don't).
Re: Founding a cult
-------------------
THere has been a lot of discussion about Gods and their masks. What about
discovering a long forgotten god and giving him or her a new mask.
My disillusioned X-Lunar character is in search of the god of Adventure.
He seeks to worship new-experience, travel for its own sake, new freinds,
new tastes, new Horizons. He obviously can't worship Orlanth. So what can
he do?..
If Orlanth has an Adventurous wing then surely he is tapping into the
god of Primal Adventure. So what is to say I can't start worshipping this
god? If Enemies all over the world can worship different masks of the same
god can I start worshipping Adventurous as I wish to see him?
If I just start worshipping. What would happen?.. I'm not expecting Instant
divine greetings, Runemagic, rulebook, etc.. I pray I don't unleash some
other nasty Superbeing who has been waiting to pray on a lost soul. I just
want to channel my enthusiasm and belief in travel and adventure FOR ITS
OWN SAKE into a proper place in society (ao outside as it is already pr
(or outside as it is already proving to be - no one believes that I have
no other motives). Note: I do not mean adventure as MOST adventurers see
it ie a quest for wealth across a large area of terrain. Wealth is optional
and is a help in getting about. It also helps you make freinds. But building
a castle ala D&D is NOT an option.
Anyway. I am about to start praying. I will set up a mobile shrine.
Wish me luck.
--Tobius Fulmax (Augustus Velmus, Darius Percius depending on when and
where we met - I'm on the run from the Sartar Front)
-------------------
Moon Boats
----------
re:MOB
Boo! They dont have sails. Well ours *will*. Ptoo! Nya!
Cheers! Sam'n'Harry. Not Scotland but Sartar Sheep Riders of the Storm.
(After all G.Stafford the werewolf - is probably correct)
---------------------
From: T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk (Thom Baguley)
Subject: Gods and glorantha
Message-ID: <9309231746.AA02184@Sun.COM>
Date: 22 Sep 93 17:05:23 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1810
Fascinating stuff on the daily lately ...
Issaries
My recollection of the God Learner connection (I forget which sources) is that
as one of their favourite cults they "seeded" it throughout Glorantha. No
mention of any major changes (as with the other GL interventions). Why? To swap
spells? To spread tradetalk? That seems rather small potatoes for the God
Learners. I suspect they just needed a very widespread trade network to support
their empire. Getting a cult to do it seems a fairly obvious God Learner choice
(as we might shop mail order or pay bills by direct debit ??). For this reason
I suspect that Issaries was 'originally' (whatever that means in Glorantha)
mainly/only a barabarian communication god only partially associated with
trade. I also suspect that the GL 'favourites' may well have been less tampered
with than others i.e. pick a cult that fits your needs and spread it around a
bit. Other cults were eliminated or subject to gross experimentation ....
Tradetalk
How widespread is tradetalk? In Maniria I suspect that most traders and many
well travelled/educated people (a minority) speak a little of it. Most
non-humans wouldn't speak it unless they are very used to human contact
(unlikely). In Pamaltela and most of the West and the East I suspect it becomes
considerably rarer. I also thought it was based on Theyelan ... In any case it
is definitely a very simple language with many regional variations. I think the
RoC writeup says it can only be spoken at a maximum of 50%. Regional variations
give a subtraction, so 100% tradetalk will permit an understanding of all
dialects (but I suspect that only an Issaries priest would bother).
HeroQuests
I think the description in KoS makes it pretty clear that HQs start with ritual
reenactment. This is the basis of most worshipo ceremonies. It seems fairly
obvious that these ceremonies are low-key heroquests (though maybe not always
so low-key e.g. during The Sacred Time). By the way ... with this definition
the Garhound Festival contest is also a heroquest (and it can, reputedly, have
very serious consequences for the locality). Maybe, anytime a Stormbull sets
out to kill a chaos monster (or trap it under a big rock?) is also a heroquest
... It seems to be a question of degree.
Gloranthan Light
I loved this debate. I also (independently) noted that light must attempt to
return to Yelm. However, this does not necessarily mean Glorantha is flat (a
slight curvature could easily be accomodated) though it is certainly NOT
spherical. Do different colours of light have different attractions to Yelm
(could this explain rainbow/prism effects or is there another mythological
explanation)? What are the Gloranthan colours of the Rainbow ... what order are
they in (yellow -closest to Yelm-, orange, red, indigo, violet, blue, green) ?
association What are these atmosphere effects that were mentioned ... does
Orlanth dare to interfere with the holy light of Yelm?
I seem to recall a Gloranthan rainbow reference somewhere, but can't recall any
details.
Plains of Prax
I loved the speculation about Prax and the wastes. Koumiss (usually fermented
High Llama milk) has featured strongly in a couple of my adventures. I
particularly liked the suggestion that horses entering Prax had to have their
hooves bound in cloth ...
Thom
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Poly-Monotheism
Message-ID:
Date: 23 Sep 93 19:04:58 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1811
Loren Miller in X-RQ-ID: 1769
>Subject: Re: Faith in Glorantha
[...]
>Polytheism isn't quite like gloranthan multi-monotheism. In
>polytheistic societies most people join as many cults as they want to
>and worship any or all of the gods as appropriate. At harvest time
>they worship the harvest god. In winter they worship the frost giants.
>Etc. Only fanatics and holy men/women sunder all their ties but one
>and pledge themselves to a single cult. In glorantha everybody joins a
>single cult and pledges themselves for the rest of their life to a
>single god.
Is that so? Aren't Sartarite Lhankor Mhy- or Elmal-initiates labeled
"Orlanthi", and correctly so? RQ3 has dropped the lay member status,
but it helps with regard to polytheism: An initiate of one cult in the
pantheon is more or less automatically a lay member in his deity's
associates' cults.
> I recognise that the nature of cults in glorantha is
>largely a game construct rather than a reflection of "life in
>glorantha" (odd to think of a fictional setting that way) but
>somewhere you need to make a decision. Do the "cult rules" in RQ
>determine the way that cults work in glorantha, or do cults in
>glorantha work the same way that cults work(ed) on earth?
I'm still working on an initiation into a Pantheon. We have got some
glimpses of that, like in Aldrya's wood-children subcult, or (if your
parents were Yelmists) Yelm the Youth - initiation only in the broadest
sense of words, but sufficiently so to be counted into temple size
calculations and similar rules-constructs..
>You have to decide whether the setting is primary, or the rules.
>Currently we only know the rules, and don't know enough about the
>setting.
Right you are, althouggh the rules aren't that stable anymore, either.
A Glorantha setting that has fascinated me of late is the Stygian
variant Aeolian Church in Kethaela, where Orlanth (Rex-Aspect, I
suppose) is equalled with the Invisible God, and his "Thanes" and
family members are seen as saints. I don't have enough information
about how much sorcery or divine or spirit magic is distributed by this
Aeolian Church, but I'd like to see some definite info about this, and
other Stygian religions as well. Are there any more enlightened
individuals out there? (No God-Learner heresies, please :)
While I'm at it:
Loren's GL picture of the man (sorcerer) Worlath, who entered the Storm
Patheon and replaced his (adopted) father Primal Air, or Umath, has
some pros and some contras.
Pros:
It's atypical Storm God behaviour to simply retire because of wounds
received, as is stated about Umath (somewhere in KoS, not p. 255 :).
Humct and Worlath, sorry, Humakt and Orlanth, are said to be brothers.
Contras:
If we continue thinking the Western version through, when and why did
the Zzaburi Worlath slay the Zzaburi Ehilm with the tool of the Zzaburi
Humct?
And who in Western myth-rendering were the Lightbringer-companions,
etc.?
Where's my bonfire? THis GL-stuff surely deserves one...
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 21 Sep 1993, part 3
Message-ID: <9309240111.AA11506@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 93 01:11:28 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1812
Paul Reilly here:
I have no time but I must make a short reply to Simon:
>About Telmori : Little did us poor unsuspecting mortals guess, but there is in
>fact a group called the pure strain Telmori who were not cursed and have
These guys have been in our campaign for many years. We had no contact
with other campaigns (never been to a convention, etc.) so there must have
been subliminal clues in the published stuff.
---
Excellent thread on god-making, etc. Will try to post a coherent note
on this thread at some future time. Have I already posted the Cult of
Op, Stormbull's Little Darkness Buddy? This was an example of a spontaneously
generated cult,
More later, paul
---------------------
From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 21 Sep 1993, part 3
Message-ID: <9309240120.AA11582@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 93 01:20:19 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1813
Oops, another interesting point:
>to smelt the iron etc...). In bronze age Glorantha I guess that plate &
>chainmail also take a lot of time & resources to produce. (Mind you, they
>didn't have Form/Set Metal in Medieval times :-)
We have thought about this for a long time. Currently in our campaign the
rule is that a Form/Set metal object 'remembers' its original shape; you
have to beat it into shape and/or heat it up to make it forget. (Similar
to realigning crystal domains in metals on Earth.) Thus Form/set is
fine for making curios and trinkets but armor made with it tends to
go 'sproing' when it is hit as it tries to assume something like its
original form. Thus the best armor is made by smithcraft (although good
-looking parade armor may be made the other way.) Smiths do use Form/Set
in several ways however. Examples: they use the spell to get a plate
cuirass in the right shape. Then they heat it up, then they beat it.
2. They use it to add ornamentation, Runes, etc . 3. Silver inlay and what not.
Sorry for the compressed style but I am really rushed.
>And for the stupid question of the day, why is chaos so wrong and what makes
I am writing something on this, will try to get that in at some point.
Not a stupid question at all!
- Paul