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, Mon, 22 Aug 1994, part 1
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
Content-Return: Prohibited
Precedence: junk
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: ns10005@hermes.cam.ac.uk (N. Smith)
Subject: A Varied Ramble
Message-ID:
Date: 21 Aug 94 18:43:13 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5799
A bundle of things today, try to keep it short:-
Tim in X-RQ-ID: 5741
"Incidentally, on the Bless crops theory, in Sun County, the farmers
fields are marked out by special marker stones, and the spell won't work
without them. May I propose that a Bless Crops spell would cover the
whole field area inside the boundaries of one property so marked by these
stones? This would make the spell a rather more useful one. (If you feel
this is too powerful, then you might put a maximum limit on "field size"
and require each field to be separately marked by these stones)"
Except that if you look at the Rabbit Hat Farm map, each field is roughly
25m*40m, one hectare, one quarter of an acre, thus decreasing the spell's
power.
Klaus in X-RQ-ID: 5749
"Then there are some spells that are useful only if you have them in
manipulated matrixes. One such is teleport. Travelling up to 10 m to a
predetermined place has only very limited use. You might of course send
letters or small parcels a long way, but to travel you need a matrix with
10 or more points of range and/or intensity."
RQ Magic Book p51 Teleport
'Each level of intensity will transfer 6 kilograms of mass (1
SIZ) that the caster touches (or himself) etc.'
I always assumed that meant "one point of intensity will transfer the
caster, or 6 kilograms...." since otherwise, as you say, the spell will
be very limited.
MOB in X-RQ-ID: 5755
Sanctify
"Does this spell have a duration (eg. the standard 15 minutes?) I don't
think so from the description."
Thought I saw something, somewhere, along the lines of it remaining in
effect until the caster moved from the Sanctified area. This may,
however, be the onset of senility (in which case I'll use all my Rune
Points to cast (n) Sever Spirits.....).
Devin in X-RQ-ID: 5763
"Don't forget, Jon, that in RQ3, Divine Magic requires more than in RQ2.
It is cast in Dex SR (implying more than just a mental process) and it
states that hands must be free, implying that in RQ3 Divine Magic is, in
one form or another, cast.
"I have always viewed Divine Magic as a mini-ritual, which occurs
very quickly, and which gains the divine attention necessary to cast the
spell (or the divine flinch, whatever)."
Sorry, can't find the requirement for hands to be free, can find
'the use of arcane sounds and phrases, subtle gestures, and the
knowledgeable expenditure of magic points'
I've always viewed Divine Magic as channelling the power of god, the
casting procedure (DEX SR) being the release and, especially, targeting
of the spell.
Alex in X-RQ-ID: 5769
"I don't think the (undoubted) innovations of the Magical Regiments included
the fairly straightforward business of having a group of divine magicians
cast their spells in concert."
Perhaps it involves them casting their spells via a "chief magician", who
acts as a "fire-coordinator", casting no spells himself (maybe a Ritual?)
but directing those cast at him to fresh targets.
Compare this with the role of the Officiating Priest at a Holy Day who,
via the Worship ceremony, collects his congregations sacrificed MP and
directs them to his god (hence the need for a successful Ceremony roll
and the gift of 1 POW for controlling the energies).
---------------------
From: raphael@research.canon.oz.au (Andrew Raphael)
Subject: Etyries & Hyenas
Message-ID: <199408211737.AA14265@mama.research.canon.oz.au>
Date: 22 Aug 94 13:37:56 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5800
>If the priest in CoP was Etyries, he had to fulfil
>an Issaries curse? Is this God Learner monomything
>imposing equality of Etyries and Issaries? Or real
>proof that Etyries is a daughter of Issaries, and
>thus bound by his strictures?
Since the God Learners were destroyed before Etyries became a cult,
we shouldn't blame them for it. :-) Etyries was a Garzeen merchant
before she converted to the Lunar Way & was apotheosized. She had
the stricture, so her worshippers have the stricture.
--
Andrew Raphael
"She's probably not what she seems, though she tries"
---------------------
From: FKiesche3@aol.com
Subject: Sam's Sartar Guidebook...
Message-ID: <9408211533.tn32193@aol.com>
Date: 21 Aug 94 19:33:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5801
Greetings All:
This is to Sam, of the famous Sartar Guidebook. I've tried sending a couple
of times and the message keeps getting returned...
Thanks...
Fred Kiesche
(FKiesche3@aol.com)
(Neuromancer@eWorld.com)
--INSERT MESSAGE--
Sender: "FKiesche3"
Message-Id: <9408211018.tn22572@aol.com>
To: gkca16@udcf.gla.ac.uk
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 94 10:18:12 EDT
Subject: Sartar Guidebook?
Greetings Sam:
I would be interested in obtaining a copy of your Sartar Guidebook, if
possible. Maybe we can work out some sort of exchange?
Thanks much.
Fred Kiesche
(FKiesche3@aol.com)
(Neuromancer@eWorld.com)
---------------------
From: CHEN190@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Peter Metcalfe, CAPE Canty)
Subject: The Blue Wizard corrects himself...
Message-ID: <01HG7LH7BHCYED0SLF@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: 23 Aug 94 00:59:04 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5802
Re: Hyenas
----------
I wrote
>Interested readers may instead refer to Scientific American which contains an
>article involving Hyenas (along with photographs) which was published at the
>most a year ago (I love to give you the exact reference, but the library is
>shut at the moment).
Unfortunately, the magazine I was thinking of was not Scientific American but
New Scientist v141 March 5 1994 page 38 - 41 'Twin Hyenas from Hell'. The Damn
God Learners are screwing my memory...
Australan Tastelessness
-----------------------
Michael O'Brian writes
>In keeping with the journalistic standards of Rupert
>Murdoch*, it was us who brought you the Page 3 Dryad (issue #4) and the
>depraved cover of issue #8 (expurgated for our prudish American readers).
Issue #8's cover was expurgated for the US! I wonder what they thought
of the cover for the first edition of US Pagan Publishing's 'Unspeakable
Oath'!
>*Rupert Murdoch, ex-Australian media magnate and now US citizen, owner
>of such quality papers as "The Sun" (UK) and "The Picture" (Aus), famous
>for its annual $10,000 "Match the Nude Models' Faces to Their Bums"
>competition.
Oh course, the record for this sort of thing must go to the Australian 'People'
magazine for their cover of woman in dog collar some time ago. Perhaps King
Vile Rump comes from Oz?
Cheers from the Blue Wizard.
Peter Metcalfe.
---------------------
From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Subject: Garzeen, Issaries, Etyries
Message-ID: <199408220412.MAA25809@cs.uwa.oz.au>
Date: 22 Aug 94 20:23:47 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5803
I think that the real facts of the incident in COP, are these.
Etyries and Issaries both try and claim the Garzeen cult as part of their
religion, Issaries probably more correctly, but (in Prax at least) Etyries
with far more political clout.
The High priest of the market at Corflu, who was not a travelling
trader but a sedentary merchant (both Issaries Goldentongue and Etyries
tend towards travelling traders, Issaries more so than Etyries), worshipped
Garzeen, but was more sympathetic to Etyries than Issaries.
However, when the crunch came, only a real Issaries priest was
suitable as a substitute Desert Tracker, none of his Etyries friends would
make acceptable substitutes. As Biturian Varosh refused, and he was the
only acceptable candidate, he had to make the quest himself, almost
certainly dieing in Vultures Country, before he even got to the Wastes.
I think to an Orlanthi it is a perfect morality play on why not to
stray from the old ways. These new gods may have more political clout on
their side, and may seem to be the same, but when the crunch comes, they
can't come through for you like the real guys.
Cheers
Dave
---------------------
From: DevinC@aol.com
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 20 Aug 1994, part 4
Message-ID: <9408220022.tn54434@aol.com>
Date: 22 Aug 94 04:22:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5804
DeviN Cutler here:
Tim Minas writes:
" Second up: Rune spell renewal. A couple of related points here, first,
Sanctify. Like all Ritual spells, this lasts 1 hr/pt, just long enough to
cast
a Worship (X) spell if you are away from home, or to do things like cast
Spell
teaching (which can only be done in a Sanctified or Holy area). It's not
really
that useful a spell, a temple, IMO, becomes automatically "Sanctified" once
it
is established with a Worship service dedicating the Temple to the
appropriate
deity. Remember, Praxian tribes have no fixed temples, and probably make do
with a totemic object as the focus (kind of like a drumhead battlefield
service, where the drums serve as the altar), and their priests cast Sanctify
and the worship occurs. Then, as long as the "altar" remains in place, that
area is a temple to Waha (say) until the tribe moves on, and the altar is
disassembled. So, although the priests Sanctify ran out after an hour or two,
the area remains "Holy" to Waha until the tribe moves."
My understanding is that rituals take 1 hour per oint to cast, but that is
not an indication of length of duration (i.e. it is casting time). For some
reason I have always assumed, as the other poster did, that Sanctify lasted
until the area was defiled, dissolved, etc.
Bob Luckin writes:
"I couldn't find hyenas in the Gloranthan bestiary. In Nomad Gods, the
counter appears to have a man's body and a hyena's head. The description
says that probably as a result of having eaten Genert, the hyena tends to
spend most of its time sitting around telling lewd jokes, which hypnotises
his audience (units in the same stack are disrupted until hyena moves away).
So are Gloranthan hyenas really man-beasts that tell lewd jokes (somehow
this strikes me as more Trickster than Genert), or are they more like the
Earth-bound variety ? How does everyone else see them ?"
Hyenas were written up in the Borderlands BEstiary and they are pretty much
just dumb earth-type hyenas with a penchant for carrion and stealing the prey
of the dead. As a note, Duke Raus orders his men to scare them away or drive
them off.
Regards,
Devin Cutler
devinc@aol.com
---------------------
From: skyler@netcom.com (Dave Schuyler)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 19 Aug 1994, part 3
Message-ID:
Date: 21 Aug 94 16:54:52 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5805
unsub RuneQuest Daily skyler@netcom.com
...I'm still interested in the digest though :o).
---------------------
From: 100270.337@compuserve.com (Nick Brooke)
Subject: Keraun etc.
Message-ID: <940821072149_100270.337_BHL29-1@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 21 Aug 94 07:21:50 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5798
Urgh. Just caught up on a week of Dailies.
David, MOB: Peebles the Cat has Xenohealed.
Sam: your things go in the post on Monday.
____________
John Hughes:
> 'Keraun comes and her children dance; the mother does not dance'
If there were grasses on the Plains, I'd have given that as the answer: the
ground cover sways in the breeze but the earth stays firm. Perhaps you have
bigger herbs than mine, or the riddle comes from north of the mountains.
_____________
Colin Watson:
> I assume the Rockwoods healer either visits a temple on a fairly regular
> basis, or he cheats in some non-standard way.
Perhaps the standard Disease Master / Daka Fal Shaman cheat (cf. Snakepipe
Hollow): getting a hundred or so Spirits of Healing to turn up to a very
small service would elevate its "temple size".
_____________
Devin Cutler:
> I would have imagined, given that women are, in many ways, viewed as
> completely inferior, that it would be suitable for a man to have many
> wives. Yet, Yelm only accepts one wife, Dendara.
Perhaps part of the answer is in KoS p.228: "[The Feathered Horse Queen's]
only significant failure was in choosing husbands, for she sought to have
more than one as was custom in Esrolia, but as everyone knows, both bigamy
and polyandry are impossible for the pure among us, and even her great
power could not change that."
As Murharzarm institutes a half-hearted 'punishment' for bigamy ("A man
must have only one wife, and the punishment for bigamy is to have multiple
wives"), it would seem to be accepted but frowned upon in Dara Happan
society.
> Could it be that the water from the White Sea does go to Magasta's Pool
> by flowing through Valind's Glacier? Id est, the water from the sea flows
> into the northern edge of the glacier, where it freezes...
This may be true. But I think there's also a current in the White Sea which
runs under the Ice and connects it to the Western Ocean. (This interests me
now, as we'll soon be hunting for a missing Lunar Icebreaker up there).
_______________
Peter Metcalfe:
> Antirius never had strong connections to the earth in Dara Happa because
> the Earth Goddess there was Dendara whereas Ernalda is Elmal's Wife.
This is God Learner sophistry: useless labels everywhere!
> IMO, Elmal is worshipped in the place of Orlanth in Orlanths clan system
> in the Elmali clans - something which stated in the Yelmalio Writeup
> whereas Antirius is worshipped in the manner of Sun County.
An odd opinion to hold, given the myths where Elmal guards Orlanth's stead,
etc. I think you need to consider and define the time and place at which
each of your statements is true. Certainly, what you say is not the normal
Elmal-among-Orlanthi position. (It may be true somewhere, or somewhen).
___________________________
Sultans and Satraps, oh my!
> Molari Slor is shown at what is the extreme end of the Oraya Sultanate
> (or Satrapy - how and why did the name get changed?)
Apocryphally, Greg realised he had been "using the wrong name" for fifteen
years, felt embarrassed by his mistake, and changed it.
I like both Sultans (oriental decadance) and Satraps (Carmanian nobility),
so I did some work reconciling the two. Here's my own personal belief:
Before the Lunar Empire was the Carmanian Empire. The Carmanian rulers over
subject lands were called "Satraps". (True per me). Out east lay the Pentan
Steppes; the Pentan word for a great and powerful ruler is "Sultan". (True
per Genertela Book).
The Red Goddess was reborn in the little town of Torang, beyond Carmania's
rule and on the fringes of Pent. She used the word "Sultan" to refer to all
the great lords she knew, because in her native tongue and the language of
her earliest followers that was the only word for such a ruler.
When the Lunar Way took over the Carmanian Empire, the local rulers were
thus called "Sultans" by the zealous conquerers and priests, "Satraps" by
most of the local populace. The two were practically synonyms. Education
(priestly or secular), and prejudice for or against either Carmania or Pent
would determine which was used in any instance. This confusion would extend
even to official publications, scriptures, and the like: do we use a half-
barbarian word from the frontiers (which the Goddess Herself spoke), or the
proper, educated word to refer to these officials?
So we've already got a confusion. Then, in the Third Wane, the hordes of
Pent swarm into Peloria. Their leader is the Great Sultan, Sheng Seleris.
His ugly bow-legged half-human nomad followers call him and his companions
"Sultan". So do the people they rule (on pain of I dare not think what!).
Liberation, when it came, was from the West: the Red Emperor who won at
Kitor was a Carmanian, who reinstituted Satrapies (by that name) and did
everything he could to expunge the memory of the Nomad conquest. In a brief
speculation at Convulsion, I thought maybe if you HeroQuested today to meet
the Goddess, she'd talk about "Satraps" -- but the scrolls would have her
saying "Sultans". The rituals have changed her words over time...
So, in the Empire today, "Sultan" has more or less the same resonance it
does for us -- oriental, despotic, barbaric usurpation, PLUS it was the
"original" Lunar word for these lords (as the Goddess Herself always said
"Sultan"). "Satrap" may be the formal, correct word for them, but it's felt
as a recent imposition, despite having been the "original" name.
So anybody, at any level in the Empire, whether religious, bureaucratic, or
commoner, from Moonson on down, could justifiably use either of these words
in any context. (Me, I use both).
_____________
Harald Smith:
> Speaking of runes, the Blue Wizard (aka Metcalfe or PHM) mentions Daka
> Fal as the first with the Man rune. I think the first was actually
> Grandfather Mortal/Old Man/etc, not Daka Fal. Daka Fal seems to be a
> resurrected aspect of one or all of these who regained the rune. You
> may have a point with the Horned Man--I certainly haven't seen anything
> on a primal spirit.
Perhaps, before Death, there was no distinction between Man and Spirit:
when Humakt sicced Grandpa, he split him up into the two current holders,
Daka Fal and Horned Man. Just a thought.
__________________
Joerg Baumgartner:
> Daka Fal is NOT Grandpa Mortal. He has changed.
> Horny Man might be a slip. However, the Great Spirit surely would have
> been Glorantha herself?
Good one. The Horned Man has been called "the Fetch of Glorantha", if that
helps.
_____________
David Dunham:
> Apparently there's some dispute as to whether the Red Moon is visible
> from Pavis. I never thought this was in doubt, but I got a letter from
> someone who claims it can't be seen from Pavis.
That'd be based on the old Cults of Prax conception (with the Red Moon
invisible beyond the Glowline, and always full within it). IMHO, the Red
Moon can be seen from Pavis; it goes through its cycle, and is invisible in
the Dying and Dark Moon phases. May be some supporting evidence in the
Cradle scenario, now I think about it.
__________
Tim Minas:
> Issaries/Etyries/Genert. How come, if the priest in CoP was Etyries,
> he had to fulfil an Issaries curse? Is this God Learner monomything
> imposing equality of Etyries and Issaries? Or real proof that Etyries
> is a daughter of Issaries, and thus bound by his strictures? Or what?
> Any answers, anybody?
My own guess would be that it isn't "real proof" of anything -- the priest
in question, to gain acceptance at the port market, would have deliberately
played up the similarities between his own religion and that of Issaries,
and was then caught by the curse as an unforseen side-effect of this self-
presentation.
====
Nick
====
---------------------