Bell Digest v940413p3

From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 13 Apr 1994, part 3
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From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex `Maybe single quotes work?' Ferguson)
Subject: Pamalt(ela) stuff.
Message-ID: <9404122144.AA09722@annenkov.dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Apr 94 21:44:39 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3615


> 	The great strength of the Pamalt pantheon has always been its  
> widely-networked association of cults. Every important cult has a  
> LARGE number of associates. Pamalt, for instance, has 13 that I know  
> of (if we count all the Land Goddesses together as 1).

This doesn't sound different from say, Yelm or Orlanth.  Do other cults
tend to have associates that their Genertelan analogues wouldn't?

> Bolongo: the local trickster sect. He only provides a very few  
> spells, and his worshipers are pitied, but not necessarily tolerated.

Does this follow the same pattern as `generic' (GoG) pattern of Trickster
worship?  Anyone have good guesses as to which aspects are associated with
Bolongo?  (Or come to that, with Eurmal, or with Rakenveg.  I hereby bet
my house Firebringer is (most usually) a Eurmal aspect, and Borotory should
be compulsory for all Tricksters. )

> Cronisper the Wise: an Old Man cult, and the only major one, in  
> contrast to the multiplicity of important Old Woman cults. 

Cronisper has always sounded Dayzatarish to me.  Did the God Learners
make this correspondance?

> Duala (Voria): the daughter of Faranar and Pamalt. She is born every  
> year and makes the good rain come (as opposed to the bad rain).

Why the association with Voria?  These cults sound less than identical
from my (uninformed) PoV.

> Hondori Mal (Babeester Gor): Her cult is recognized here, with  
> remarkably few changes. Her ancient tasks of sacred avenger and  
> guardian of the earth are needed as much in Pamaltela as anywhere.  

Perhaps this cult isn't female-only in Pamaltela.  (female :: earth
seems a less fixed association in Pamaltela.)  This would at any rate
account for the Bludner in Elder Secrets which would otherwise have
every single dryad in the jungles worshipping HM/BG.

> Jmijie: a god for wanderers who belong to no tribe. He has lots of  
> mobility spells and might actually be some sort of advanced form of  
> the Mastakos sect, an obscure rarely-worshiped god of Genertela.

I don't think Mastakos is `obscure', he just happens to be a de facto
Orlanth subcult.  I personally think he has more magic than described
in GoG, when worshipped in specialised sub(sub?)cults in his roles as
Charioteer and Runner, usually in the service of some Big Noise Orlanthi.
His billing as one of the Major Gods of Glorantha takes some swallowing,
though.

> Noruma: the god of shamans and magic. Most shamans at least toy with  
> this cult. 

How close is this cult to Horned Man?

Alex.


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From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Re: prison
Message-ID: <9404122127.AA15585@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 94 21:27:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3617


  Sandy writes:

>	Broos aren't primates, for one thing. And among humans, if  
>not other primates, intra-group rape is not a useful way to express  
>dominance. 

  I hate to take issue with Sandy, but:  Have you checked out a prison
lately?  I have friends in prison, and intra-group rape DOES seem to
be a way to express dominance among human males.  Not to mention some
families...

>would not attack another broo -- because there is no possibility of  
>offspring, hence the violation of the rape is incomplete. Not that  

  This argument on the other hand makes sense.

  ANother model: MOST Broo are female - we just don't know it.  THe Male
Leaders rape and dominate them.  They then go and insert their 'larvapositor'
into other species, injecting a larval broo which slowly eats its way out...

  THis theory makes too much sense to use...  Westerners might believe it.


>	Alas, I'm no moral relativist. Most faiths on Earth proclaim  
>similar acts as "good", from Muslim to Judaism

  Like when Yahweh orders the Jews to kill all the Canaanites in a town,
sparing neither the women and children nor the domestic animals?

  Or when the Moslems exploded across the world, killing any (apart, 
theoretically, from Peoples of the Book) who would not convert?

  More examples of 'good' behavior from various religions (Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live, etc.) deleted.

  There are religious leaders in America who proclaim that tolerating
homosexuality is an evil act...

  A lot of what is Good is defined by asking "Am I doing this to my own
tribe or outsiders?"

  I'll write something about the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Outer Hells at
some point...

 -paul
ps.  Sorry to disagree with Sandy on a couple of points, makes me suspect
I'm doing something wrong...

 - Paul

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From: carlsonp@wdni.com (Carlson, Pam)
Subject: Sorcerers vs Priests, Lunars on the Zola Fel
Message-ID: <2DAB30A0@itlab.wtc.weyer.com>
Date: 12 Apr 94 23:38:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3618


It strikes me that people mainly fear sorcerers  because they represent 
frightening power with no discernable alliegence or control.  A priestess 
might have 57 points of divine magic, but those runes on her hemline give 
you a clue as to her intent.  And to aquire that power, she has (most 
probably) been behaving according to the values of her deity.  A ZZ Death 
Lord may be a nasty menace, but  at least he's nasty in predictable ways.
Sorcerer "x" is  Gloranthan equivalent to that guy on the street corner with 
an Uzi in one hand  and a rubber duckie in the other.
________________________

A few weeks ago someone mentioned that they had run a "Heart of Darkness" 
type scenario, with young Lunar officers travelling down the Zola Fel.  I 
have some players who are just right for this concept.  Could whoever posted 
that one drop me a line?  I have a few questions, if  you don't mind a 
little acknowledged plagerism.

Thanks in Advance,

Pam  carlsonp@wdni.com

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From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham)
Subject: Earthly stuff
Message-ID: <199404130333.AA13490@radiomail.net>
Date: 13 Apr 94 03:33:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3619

Guy Robinson said
>It is a real shame that Glorantha is ridden with far too many
>fantasy names that are a curse to most fantasy writings.

You'd prefer that Allan the Liberator and his friend Harry the Berserk
defeat Jessica the Razor and liberate Seattle from the Roman Empire so that
Oliver can be worshipped again?

Michael O'Brien (who should talk, naming people after Earthly geography) said
>However, we don't (or shouldn't) just assume Lunar = Roman, Kralorelan
>= Chinese etc., nor are such bald assumptions ever spelled out in RQ 
>publications.
>I just don't think specific terrestrial
>locations should be mentioned in RQ publications.

True. But I plan to use pictures of Celtic "cone-houses" and hill forts to
show the players in my not-yet-started Ralios campaign where they live. If
I didn't know the Orlanthi had Celtic attributes, I couldn't do this. The
geographic equivalencies are also handy. It's possible to get photos, and
it can give you an idea of what kind of vegetation and wildlife you'd find.
Even if this is wrong, it's better to have a definite idea than to say "I
don't know."

Sandy said
>the big crimes of adultery, murder, theft,  
>are pretty much agreed upon by unrelated cultures across the world

I ran across the idea that crimes are fairly universal, but who they apply
varies by culture. For a Grazer, taking the horses of someone in your clan
would be theft in the worst way. Taking horses from another clan would be
petty theft at most. Taking horses from Tarsh would not be theft. Another
Gloranthan example is the Tap spell. Most people think it's bad, but the
Borists are willing to tap chaotics, the Galvosti are willing to tap other
cultures, etc.

What's the difference between the Stygian Heresy and the Henotheistic
Church in Ralios? They're the same thing, depending on who's doing the
naming, right?


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