> To: glorantha_at_...
> From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
(in response to Peter Larsen)
> Secondly Tapping is a secret knowledge according to
> HW:RiG
> p195 so only some Zzaburi have the knowledge as
> other
> Zzaburi
> would learn other secrets.
>
> Exploring the question further - what is Tapping and
> why is the spell
> so prominent among the Malkioni? The Malkioni can
> probably think
> of other spells that are bad, yet Tapping is of
> great
> concern to them.
>
> Perhaps the most relevant statement is in Cults of
> Terror in which
> Zzabur creates a new spell which harnesses entropy
> and
> sparks of
> a new reaction of powers to generate a new creation.
>
> This Great
> Spell is probably the Malkioni analog to the Sacred
> Time, the
> regeneration of the Cosmos, and thus recast every
> year. A major
> reason why Zzaburi are tolerated among venerating
> Malkioni (such
> as the Rokari and the Hrestoli) might be that only
> they have the
> knowledge to co-ordinate the Great Spell - a moiety
> in
> anthropology.
>
> So there are two magics - one that uses entropy to
> renew a
> destroyed Cosmos and the other uses entropy to drain
> energy
> from a living Cosmos. I believe that the two magics
> are one
> and the same. Tapping is the Great Magic that
> Zzabur
> used
> to end the Great Darkness - its horrific harm is due
> to it being
> used in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Great post, Peter.
Alternatively, maybe tapping is risky (and so
inhibited to most sorcerers) because if you tap the
otherworld (underworld, heroplane, adept plane)
instead of the middle world, the amount of energy
released can kill the tapper or mutate him or backlash
wildly around him.
Maybe Zzabur learned this lesson and wants his
followers to be extremely careful about tapping
because in Glorantha, a sacred place or a "weak spot"
or other strange creatures, if tapped, could make the
sorcerer connected with the otherworlds without him
being aware and prepared and so is extremely
dangerous.
Ciao,
Gian
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com