Re: More Thoughts on Wounded Gods and Heroes

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 09:23:51 -0700

Gloranthan "crippled Gods" tend to be missing magical powers, rather than having deformed/missing body parts. Arroin lost his magical healing powers, Mastakos his mobility, Yelmalio his fire, etc. Sometimes the loss of power is reflected in a permanent injury to the god, but a Gloranthan god getting crippled more often means losing an item (Lightning spear, Sandals of Darkness, Shield of Aran, etc) rather than a body part. The Cult of Yelmalio doesn't seem to make any special mention of the wound through which he lost his Fire powers.

Note that there is usually only one or two crippled god in a (Earth) pantheon - only Hephaestus is lame in the Olympic pantheon, all the other Gods and Goddesses are in Perfect health and shape. Tyr lost an arm and Odin an eye, but the rest of the Valhalla gang are hale and healthy.

As far as crippled adventurers, they are probably tended by a subcult of the local healing entity (or, as someone suggested, they are abandoned to die). My first RQ Hero (this was RQ1) lost an arm, and my first cult writeup was for the God of prosthetic limbs...

RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has done what he has done.
- Richelieu