Many thanks for all the great comments on the ZZ draft cult writeup
(especially Ian's 'little' PS that ZZ is animist... groan... <grin>).
That notwithstanding, the ideas we're all coming up with are clearly a basically theistic approach to ZZ, so I'll continue in that vein at the moment. I did notice that Glorantha:Introduction to the Hero Wars shifted ZZ slightly by referring to him as a Demon rather than as a God - which threw me completely, as I've no clear idea how Demons are worshipped... That said, all the ZZ trolls in _my_ Glorantha certainly _think_ they're worshipping ZZ as a deity...;-)
Two thoughts still preoccupy me:
1.) ZZ's Affinities: I certainly _love_ Peter's (I think it was Peter!) depiction of ZZ's affinities as Lead Death's Legions, Hate, and Vengeance. My only uncertainty is that these are clearly all coloured by the Death association to the extent that they seem to deemphasise Darkness and Disorder a wee bit. OTOH I'm completely happy with this - it _feels_ right for ZZ. Anybody passionately against this?
2.) ZZ's Secret: Here's a slightly modified take - in ZZ's
activities in the Godtime he accomplishes something Major, in that
Fire, which hitherto (and since) has always been synonymous with
Death and the Great Enemy for trolls, suddenly is a power which ZZ
steals, overcomes, and - to some degree - learns to enslave/control.
So, it's beginning to seem to me that ZZ's secret is _not_
necessarily the Affinity gained from Amanstan, but rather a power
(still maybe an Affinity) gained as a _result_ of ZZ's theft of
fire. Ie, something truly paradoxical and almost mystical happened
to ZZ in the Godtime to propel him from "minor God" to super-troll
god, along the lines of "Zorak Zoran, the Darkness Which Wields the
Fiery Death", or "Zorak Zoran, Who Has Mastered the Great Fiery Enemy
which is Death to All Darkness". Almost something Promethean... I'm
still a bit vague on where this is going, but d'you get my idea?
Praps if everyone's happy with the idea, I'll try and subsume all our thoughts into a writeup today or tomorrow, and if Ian T's happy with it maybe he'd like to take some of our thoughts into account?
Incidentally, Ian, I'd like to hear your thoughts on ZZ being animist: do you mean _exclusively_ animist (ie he's a Great Spirit and only worshipped as one), or d'you mean that he _may_ be worshipped animistically but also theistically, etc... My understanding of ZZ certainly leads me to conceive of him as the object of theistic worship, specially in Dragon Pass, although I can certainly accept that Troll Deities, like Chaos and Dragonewts, might need a slightly different magic system approach than the current "Four Paths".
Thanks for reading!
Regards,
Sarah
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