Re: Delecti and Expansionist Theory

From: Graham Robinson <graham_at_...>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 14:11:43 +0000


Rick writes :

>Graham Robinson and a few others have awakened
>a response in me by theorizing on Delecti and
>his expansionist tendencies, along with his
>relationships with Humakti around the Marsh.

Much good stuff from Rick, all of which agrees pretty well with my own campaign. Given Tales 18&19 are major references for that campaign, this may not be a huge surprise... I'll add a few comments, strictly from my own glorantha.

Personally, I don't see Delecti having any interest in expansion, empire building, or worldly power. Instead, I think his major plan centres on the creation and expansion of a short world. The occasional rituals and expansions of the marsh seen by the orlanthi are only the physical manifestations of a much greater ritual, one of which most are blissfully ignorant. The zombies and other beasts of the marsh exist to keep the neighbours away from the truly important sites, give them reason to fear and hate Delecti (which he uses to power the short world) and because, lets face it, reanimating corpses is fun. Especially if they have been creatively improved first. Few if any of the surrounding Orlanthi know of his true intentions, or have any idea that by fighting his zombies and making them the focus of their Humakti death rituals they are helping to make the necromancer stronger.

Delecti's ambitions are to survive, and be allowed to continue his experiments. The Orlanthi's ambition is to contain him, and protect themselves. While this means that Humakt is a more popular cult amongst them than amongst other clans, I don't see him as a dominant god.

I could go on further, perhaps talking about the dual existence of zombies - their broken form in the middle world, their perfect existence in Delecti's realm - or speculation that perhaps even Delecti's current short world is not safe enough and has lead him to attempt to open a path from this world to another, even more obscure. But I suspect that is Digest fodder.

Cheers,
Graham

-- 
Graham Robinson
graham_at_...

Albion Software Engineering Ltd.

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