Bell Digest v940430p1

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Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 30 Apr 1994, part 1
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X-RQ-ID: Intro

This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on
the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's 
world of Glorantha.  It is sent out once per day in digest
format.

More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found
after the last message in this digest.


---------------------

From: devinc@aol.com
Subject: Some Praxian Plunder
Message-ID: <9404292044.tn14313@aol.com>
Date: 30 Apr 94 00:44:05 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3856

Devin Cutler here:

While I do appreciate the various discussions on various esoterica, I do miss
the great "practical" stuff that used to be posted to this Daily (you know,
cults, magic items, creatures, etc.). Here are two of my submissions for
Praxian Plunder. I welcome comments.

GENERT'S TEARS



DESCRIPTION

A brownish piece of translucent hardened material much like amber, but with
blue veins running through the surface and the interior. Such pieces are
usually no larger than thumb-sized.

CULTS

Associated - Waha, Eiritha
Friendly - Issaries
Hostile - Chaos Cults

KNOWLEDGE

Common; Few

HISTORY

When Genert fought his tragic and desperate battles against Wakboth the Devil
and the other forces of Chaos amid the lands that made up his garden, he had
to make great sacrifices and had to bear witness to the destruction of
everything he held dear. He was forced to turn his beloved followers into
slivers of copper, so that the gods of air could whip them into a stinging
fury that would delay the encroaching chaos. Even worse for the god, he
watched helplessly as the centre of his being, his great garden, was slowly
wrenched apart and made unwholesome by the advancing evil. Finally, Genert
himself was overcome, and the god of the northern continent of Glorantha was
slain, his paradise become the Wasteland that now stretches from Sartar to
Kralorela.

During his travails, Genert shed many tears.  Within these tears were locked
the very essence of the god's despair -- hopelessness, futility, desperation,
and rage, but also were contained bits of the vitality, sensitivity,
dauntless courage, and vigour that made up the best qualities of the now dead
earth god. These tears hardened and crystallized into the amber-like
substance that can be found currently.

Genert's Tears are rare and wondrous items, found mostly in the centre of
Genert's Wastes, especially at those places where great tragedy occurred.
Such places include Genert's Garden (now a marsh in the Wastes) and the
Copper Sands. Less often, such tears are found throughout all of the Wastes
and Prax, although most of those shed in populated areas are likely to have
been found. Certainly, since they can only be used once, the frequency of
discovering tears has declined over time.

PROCEDURE

A Genert's Tear is utilized by swallowing it. First, the Tear must be
softened with the expenditure of 1 MP. This gives the Tear the consistency of
very thick sap for 5 minutes. If the Tear is then swallowed while soft, it
will activate. If allowed to re harden, the Tear may be softened again at any
time.



POWERS

Once swallowed, the user undergoes a surrogate experience of Genert's
travails. If he survives the experience, he then gains a piece of Genert's
strength and vitality.

Each Tear has a POT of from 1 to 4.  For all characteristic rolls, a POT of 1
requires a characteristic roll x5%. For POT 2 the roll is x4%, POT 3 x3% and
POT 4 x2%.

The Travails:

The instant the Tear is swallowed, the user begins to experience the travails
of Genert. He is incapable of any action other than to sit still and stare
and perhaps moan or scream from time to time. The travail takes 3D6 minutes,
and the user may experience, in addition to moaning softly and screaming
occasionally, frothing at the mouth, crying jags, self mutilation (e.g.
clawing at one's face, pulling out hair, etc.). 

During the Travail, the user must undergo the following characteristic rolls,
with penalties for failure given therewith.

CONSTITUTION  Having succumbed to the pain of Genert, the user must subtract
D20 from CON. If the result brings the user to 0 or less, then the user will
have died of despair. Otherwise, CON will be regained at the rate of 1 per
week.

INTELLIGENCE  Having fallen  to the horrors that Genert witnessed, the user
will go insane for D20 days. Treat as the effects of the Madness spell or
make up an appropriate Insanity

POWER   Having surrendered to the despair that Genert felt, the user will
become fatalistic and demoralized, acting as if under     the effects of a
Demoralize spell for D20 seasons.


The Benefits:

Should the user survive the ordeal, he may receive some benefits of the good
qualities of Genert's essence. For each of the three Travails failed,
subtract 1 from the POT of the Tear when figuring benefits. Thus, if a POT 1
Tear is swallowed, then all three Travails must be passed or no benefit is
gained.

VIGOUR   The user has been imbued with the vitality and stamina of Genert,
and may cast a Vigour spell equal in points to the POT of the Tear once per
day at no cost in MP.

RAGE   The user has been imbued with the rage of Genert and     may fall
under a type of fanaticism wherein for each POT of the Tear, 5% is added to
all melee attack percentages, but     5% is subtracted from all parries and
dodges. This ability     may be invoked once per day. Against an obvious
creature of Chaos, the bonus to attack is doubled, without a     
corresponding doubling of penalties.

COURAGE   The user has been imbued with the courage of Genert, and may at all
times add the POT of the Tear to any statistic involved in resisting
Demoralization, Fear, Fearshock, etc.  For example, a user with 13 MP and a
POT 4 Tear would resist Demoralization as if his MP were 17.


FERTILITY   The user has been invested with the life giving aura of Genert
and may cast a Heal spell equal to the POT of the Tear once per day at no MP
cost.

Vigour and Rage effects last 15 minutes once invoked. None of the powers may
be invoked until any lingering effects of the Travail have been lifted.

Any creature tainted by Chaos who imbibes one of the Tears will suffer
extreme pain and will undergo all of the Travails with no chance of gaining
any of the Benefits.

VALUE

At least 2,500L per POT. 

NOTE

Chaos creatures are known to sometimes use these as a means of punishing
others of their ilk by forcing them to swallow a Tear. Nevertheless, most
devotees of Chaos will seek to destroy the Tears. When hard, the Tears have
the hardness of Amber and can be destroyed by repeated blows.


Designer's Notes:

I wanted to create an item that centred around what is really the defining
moment in all of Prax --the death of Genert, an event that I feel has really
been under emphasized by RQ and Gloranthan scholars.

I designed the item to be a sort of heroquest in miniature. In other words,
the user follows in the path of the god Genert, and if he survives, he can
gain some of Genert's powers and essence. This seems to be a very Gloranthan
concept.

As you can tell from my writeup, I consider Genert's death to be a tragic but
heroic resistance on his part, probably to delay the encroaching Chaos long
enough to allow for later victories, such as the I-Fought-We-Won Battle
and/or Stormbull's victory. Certainly, the writeup of the Copper Sands in
Genertela - Crucible of the Hero Wars supports this view. 

I certainly hope that the official Gloranthan view is not that Genert was a
coward and such, or else the premise of the Tears becomes fairly worthless.


PRAXIAN BULLROARERS



DESCRIPTION

A small piece of bone, pierced with holes and covered with runes, attached to
a sturdy leather thong about 1m in length.

CULTS

Associated - Eiritha
Friendly - Stormbull, Waha, Chalanna Arroy
Hostile - Tribal Enemies

KNOWLEDGE

Cult Secret, Few

HISTORY

The Animal Riders of Prax believe that the making of these items were taught
to certain favoured members of the tribes of Prax and the Wastes by Eiritha
in order to help sustain them against enemies. Within the clan, the knowledge
is usually held by the elderly women, although male shamans sometimes also
acquire the knowledge. Although called a bullroarer, since these items are
most favoured by the Bison Tribe, the other Tribes of Prax employ these
items, and when this is the case, they are known by other names, such as
Impala Screamers, Llama Shriekers, etc. Only a few clans in each tribe have
the knowledge of the creation of these items, and they tend to jealously
guard the secret of their ritual, even from other tribesmen.

It is known that bullroarers are also used by the Agimori of Jolar in the
continent of Pamaltela, and this similarity has caused some scholars to
speculate that the means of creating of these items may have been brought to
Genertela by the Agimori who crossed over from Pamaltela in ancient times.
This would explain why only certain clans were given the knowledge of the
Create Bullroarer Ritual, as the Agimori would have only passed such
knowledge to favoured clans. It is certain, however, from the rather specific
functions of some of the Bullroarers, that the Praxians have adapted them to
their own uses.

PROCEDURE

The Bullroarer is created by way of a Ritual Enchantment, which is usually
passed down amongst Eiritha Priestesses of the Clan. There are many different
types of Bullroarers, the most common of which are given here. Each requires
a leather thong made from the hide of the Clan's sacred animal. This thong is
then tied to a piece of bone, usually palm sized, which has been pierced by
many small holes and grooves, and into which have been carved the runes of
enchantment. The type of bone used depends upon the type of Bullroarer being
created.






CREATE BULLROARER

Divine Enchantment Ritual, Reusable  2 POW

When this ritual is performed, a Bullroarer of the appropriate type is
created. The ritual itself takes a full day to complete, and must be
performed on a seasonal holy day of Eiritha. As the various grooves and holes
must be made in a precise fashion in order for the Bullroarer to function
effectively, the ritual is very exacting and difficult, requiring both a
Craft Bone skill roll to be made as well as an Enchant Roll at -25%. Because
of the difficulties involved in making the enchantment, only the very skilled
are taught the ritual...usually elderly Eiritha Priestesses.

The most common types of Bullroarers that may be created and the required
bones are listed below.

SPIRIT BULLROARER    Part of the skull of the clan's sacred        animal
which had a POW of 15 or more at the time of its death

STORM BULLROARER    Part of the skull of a creature of        Chaos

WAR BULLROARER    Part of the skull of an enemy clan's        sacred animal

HEALING BULLROARER    Part of the rib of the clan's sacred        animal

GODS' BULLROARER    Part of the jawbone of the clan's        sacred animal

COURAGE BULLROARER   Part of the spine of the clan's sacred        animal


POWERS

When the Bullroarer is grasped by the end of the thong which is opposite the
piece of bone and is spun in the air in a wide circle, a loud, eerie sound is
produced. The sound varies from Bullroarer type to Bullroarer type and from
Tribe to Tribe. Each Bullroarer (except for the God's Bullroarer) acts as a
sort of spell matrix which produces an effect. The effects last as long as
the Bullroarer is spun. No single person or being can ever be affected by
more than one Bullroarer at a time. If two Bullroarers are being spun
simultaneously and both could affect a single individual, then the Bullroarer
that was activated first takes precedence until such time as it stops
spinning. When the Bullroarer stops spinning, even for a second, the effect
is lost and must be reactivated.

It requires the expenditure of one Fatigue per melee round to activate any of
the Bullroarers except for the God's Bullroarer. If Fatigue becomes negative,
allow a percentage chance equal to the amount of negative Fatigue each round
that the user will become too tired to keep spinning and must rest until
Fatigue becomes positive again. 

If not using Fatigue, then allow a user to spin the Bullroarer for twice
Constitution in melee rounds and then require a Con x10% roll on the next
round, a Con x 9% roll on the following round, and so on until the roll is
failed. Once the Con roll fails, the user has grown too tired and stops
spinning.

The effects of the various Bullroarers are:

SPIRIT BULLROARER Creates a sound that resonates on the Spirit Plane and
attacks spirits. All spirits within 200m of the Bullroarer will be attacked
by the sound as if they were engaged in Spirit Combat. The Bullroarer does
not distinguish between friendly or enemy spirits, but only disembodied
spirits who are Visible will be affected. Fetches are specifically not
affected. For each MP put into the Bullroarer at the beginning of its spin,
the Bullroarer will generate an attack strength of 2 MP versus spirits.

STORM BULLROARER This Bullroarer creates a sound that demoralizes any
creature tainted by Chaos. For each MP placed into the Bullroarer at the
beginning of a spin, the Bullroarer will Demoralize all creatures of Chaos
who can hear within a     100m radius as if the spell had been cast using 3
MP. Thus, a Bullroarer charged with 6MP Demoralizes using a MP vs MP base of
18 MP. The Demoralization stops when the spinning stops. This Demoralization
cannot be dispelled or     countermagicked, but may be negated with
mind-affecting     spells like fanaticism.

WAR BULLROARER This Bullroarer creates a sound which demoralizes all
fixed-Intelligence animals of the same species as that from  which the
Bullroarer bone has been made. Only War  Bullroarers affecting Waha herd
animals are thought     possible, although rumours persist of Horse-affecting
    Bullroarers. For each MP placed into the Bullroarer at the     beginning
of a spin, the Bullroarer will Demoralize all such     herd beasts who can
hear within a 100m radius as if the     spell had been cast using 3 MP. Thus,
a Bullroarer charged     with 6MP Demoralizes using a MP vs MP base of 18 MP.
The Demoralization stops when the spinning stops. This     Demoralization
cannot be dispelled or countermagicked, but may be negated with
mind-affecting spells like fanaticism.

HEALING BULLROARER For each MP placed into the Bullroarer when spun, 5% is
added to the chances of performing First Aid or Treat Poison on a victim. The
effect works for all such persons using the skills who  can hear the
Bullroarer, are members of the tribe represented by the animal bone,  and are
within a 50m radius. The Bullroarer must be spinning during the entire
duration of the skill being used.

GODS' BULLROARER Unlike other Bullroarers, this one, when spun, invokes a
sound which resonates on the Godplane and places all who hear into harmony
with their deity. The effect of this is that all Ceremonies performed within
25m of such a spinning Bullroarer have their chance to succeed increased by  
  3D6%. If used for Ceremony affecting the casting of spirit     magic
spells, then the spinning must be continuous and     affects Fatigue as
outlined above. 

If affecting a Ritual Ceremony, then the spinning only     occurs at
intermittent periods during the ceremony, and     takes no Fatigue to use.
However, if used for Ritual     Ceremonies, the Bullroarer must be used
almost as a     musical instrument, to produce sounds in accordance with    
the mystical rhythms of the ceremony. In this case, a     successful Play
Instrument (Bullroarer) skill roll must be     made or the Bullroarerhas no
effect on that ceremony. A     Special Play Bullroarer doubles the % added to
the      Ceremony skill, while a Critical triples the % added.

This Bullroarer only works upon rituals of Waha, Chalanna     Arroy, Eiritha,
or Stormbull cast by clans members who     revere the animal used to make the
Bullroarer.

COURAGE    The sound of this Bullroarer imparts Courage upon those BULLROARER
 who are members of the tribe which reveres the animals from which the
Bullroarer bone was made. For each MP placed into theBullroarer as it is
spun, all those affected who can hear the sound and are within 200m of the   
 Bullroarer will gain a phantom MP (or phantom point of some other
characteristic if applicable) which resists against all Demoralization
attacks and from Fear-type effects.

VALUE

Value of the Bullroarer will depend upon its type and usability by the buyer.
Certainly, a Bullroar is worth much to the tribe that made it, perhaps as
much as 3,000L in goods or training. The more universal types, such as the
STORM BULLROARER or SPIRIT BULLROARER would sell for perhaps 3,000L to
4,500L.

NOTE

Aside from their magical uses here, Bullroarers can, in the hands of a
skilled user, convey beautiful music and can be used to communicate over long
distances. Therefore, there are two skills connected with Bullroarers:

Play Instrument (Bullroarer) - Allows the user to play music with the
Bullroarer. Pitch is adjusted by increasing or decreasing the rate of spin

Communicate with Bullroarer - This skill is similar to Play Instrument, but
allows the user to communicate basic ideas (e.g. Danger from the South, Good
Hunting nearby, etc.) to anyone who also has this skill.

Regards,
Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com

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From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Invisible God and Arachne Solara
Message-ID: 
Date: 29 Apr 94 07:43:19 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3844

Graeme Lindsell in X-RQ-ID: 3832

>  A few weeks ago, there was a discussion about whether the Invisible God
> really existed or not, with some posters pointing out how little he (or 
> she it) gives to its worshippers. One point I would make in reply is 
> that the major sorcerous cultures we've had described (the Malkioni and 
> the Mostali) both believe in a single unifying concept behind Gloranthan 
> reality (the IG and the World Machine respectively). I'm not sure that 
> this proves anything but it would seem a unified world view is 
> helpful for sorcerers (as it is for scientists). As for whether the IG 
> gives anything else, its lack of response could demonstrate it's extreme 
> power, given the Gloranthan inverse relationship between power and free 
> will. Arachne Solara does not give anything to her worshippers: do you
> doubt she exists.

>  (Aside: I've often wondered whether the Invisible God and Arachne Solara
> are one and the same)

At least some Stygian Malkioni (to wit: the Aeolians as I view them) 
say that the Invisible God has three aspects, one for each corner of 
his Rune (Law): The Creator, the Spirit, and the Incarnation (or 
inspiration) in the world. The spirit is generally equated with the 
spirit of the world, or Glorantha/Arachne Solara. Those with Lightbringer 
background often throw in Ginna Jar. The Incarnation varies with the sect; 
the orthodox sects would adhering to this philosophy use Malkion the 
Prophet, henotheists would use their main deity.

The difference between Mostali and Malkioni ideas of the unifying 
principle seems to be the nature of it: The Mostali World Machine is the 
Creation, the Invisible God is the Creator.
-- 
--  Joerg Baumgartner   joe@sartar.toppoint.de

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From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Lies and truths
Message-ID: 
Date: 29 Apr 94 07:43:38 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3845

Scott Schneider in X-RQ-ID: 3827

> More Damnable Lies!!

At least we are warned. 

> The true story of Little Brother, the Stick and the Lariat is told 
> in the secret story of "Why Little Brother Don't Come to My Home 
> No More", known by all who have fought with Him in the Eternal 
> Battle. As is known to all us kumiss drinkers, it explains the 
> deceitful and compl-  complicat- uh, difficult tricks used by  
> Little Brother

So Big Brute Bull Storm did what the rightful heir of the universe 
wanted him to do, right?

> in order to get Big Brother Bull Storm to save his 
> ass, after losing Fralar's son Yinkin. It also explains the origin 
> of Storm Bull's Secret Bad Wind power, the creation of the Secret 
> Spray Oasis, and the great anti-Chaos Finger Magic. These powers 
> are revealed to all good Storm Berserkers during their 
> initiations, and may actually be acquired through questing.

An all of them thanks to Orlanth, who made his brother acquire these 
powers. This shows how grateful these drunkards are, doesn't it?

-- 
--  Joerg Baumgartner   joe@sartar.toppoint.de

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From: jdegon@vega.iii.com (Jim DeGon)
Subject: Carmania
Message-ID: <9404290841.AA17397@enrico>
Date: 28 Apr 94 18:41:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 3846


Jim DeGon here

Sandy P. brought up the subject of Carmania again.  It occurred to me
this morning that another analogue for this culture might be the feudal
era of India, in which the warrior caste dominated affairs for several
centuries until they died out from too much fighting.  This would not be
a direct analogue to European Feudalism due to the widely divergent
religious base.  It _feels_ better for Humaktis.  I believe the dominant
caste was Ksatriya, but it was called the Rajput era.

The dominant theme was definitely death or glory.  The caste aspect is
prevalent in both cultures.

This is all that I can remember, as my amateur interest in this era waned
several years ago.  I am almost sure that others on this list would know of
it, however.

Hindu history actually seems like an excellent source to draw upon
for analogues for much of Gloranthan religion, since at various
times and in various locations, divine dominance and individual god's
aspects varied quite a bit.