At 10:40 AM 6/8/2002 +0200, you wrote:
>> >Is there *ever* a circumstance when a magician using something like Sense
>> >Runic Powers could ever detect Illusion?
>> >Since the effect of the Illusion is
>> >in essence to create a manifestation in reality of another Runic Power,
then
>> >for instance, it would seem to follow that any magical effect which is
>> >capable of discovering the Runic associations of an object or person
would,
>> >if directed at say a Trickster or a shrine to Eurmal, see only a void
>> >without any Runic ties?
>> They would see the runic cration that the Trickster made, not a void.
>Ok, understood, I meant it in the case where the Trickster did *not* make a
>runic creation. ie. I was thinking that a Wind Child is in a way tied to the
>Air rune and a Boggle met on a Heroquest would be tied to the Disorder rune
>and, to a lesser extent, a human who worshipped Malia say would be tied to
>Chaos (though he was not born with that association to Chaos).
Let's start by looking at the difference between them and their magic.
What if a Wind child was a Humakti and used Humakti feats? The feats would,
of course, "register" as Death runes.
>By the same
>token, I would have thought that a Trickster or a Trickster shrine would be
>tied to the Illusion rune, so if someone magically sensed on an Orlanth
>worshipper or a Storm Bull, they could detect Motion or Death respectively,
>and if someone magically sensed the runic ties of a Trickster, would they be
>able to detect the *tie* with Illusion, or not?
I'd say that a Detect Runic Association would be able to detect a Trickster
of a Trickster shrine as being of Illusion Rune Power. But NOT their magic.
Their magic would not be an of illusion, but of the power that they made.
>If the answer is Illusion is
>undetectable then that is fine, so the answer would be someone who detects
>the runic ties of a human Trickster would see only the man rune and someone
>who detects the runic ties of a stone shrine to Trickster would detect
>nothing (or maybe the Earth rune since it is a stone)? I'm ok with the runic
>creations of Illusion being real manifestations of other things and have no
>tie to Illusion at all, but the runic ties of a Trickster shrine or a
>Trickster worshipper is what I was wondering?
We need to look at the difference between the person and his magic.
>> It would absolutely be able to detect the Lhankor Mhy Truths.
>I'm fine with that. Lhankor Mhy Truths are not Truth itself (which is gone
>and unknowable), but is then the difference that although other gods can
>wield their various aspects of runes such as Truth (such as Humakt / Lhankor
>Mhy etc.), the Trickster is the last real connection to Illusion remaining
>on Glorantha and so a direct connection to the original rune and partly for
>that reason so uncontrollable and dangerous?
Mark Galeotti's recent post was a good insight about why Illusion/Trickster
is so dangerous.
BTW, I would think that a Detect Runic Power feat (or spell or whatever)
would have some of the same limitations that Illusion magic would have.
That is, if a Trickster had never seen an elephant and used illusion to
create one, then it would be an elephant as he knows it: some weird
creature like the elephants illustrated in medieval bestiaries, for instance.
By the same token, someone with a Detect Rune Power might only be able to
recognize the powers with which he is familiar. If he's never seen Truth
magic, for instance, he might just get an accurate reading of "This is a
rune power you do not know."
this might be why the God Learners' "rune alphabet" became so widespread:
it was a pretty good set of complete powers. But nonetheless, unless
someone had training they might not be able to recognize all the rune
powers that they detected.
Finally, I am not convinced that "detect rune powers" is a common feat or power. It smacks of sorcery to me. It is not a common power, even in cults that may have the feat, for the reasons listed above. Who would be able to trust (say) a Lhankor Mhy who regularly studies illusion, death, fire and so on.
Finally, the Rune Power thing is complicated because Glorantha DOES have
hundreds of runes beyond the Core Runes. I suppose that a simple Detect
Rune Power feat would probably result in saying, "Oh, that is Hedkoranth
power."
This would make all the above Q&A to be "Sense Core Runic Power."
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