>Of course, what is the point in being evil if it doesn't have certain
>advantages, like short cuts to power? I wonder how that could be
>represented in HQ? I suppose grimoires with a particularly effective
>array of spells, but that doesn't sound all that exciting. Maybe
>through rituals? They have some particularly effective rituals,
>giving them big bonusses at key moments, but of course the rituals
>involve the slaughter of babies, torture of the innocent, and similar
>loveliness? Perhaps added bonus for particularly vile despoilement
>of people or things particularly pure and good?
>
>(the same sort of question applies to a couple of other cultures
>possibly, and certainly on a smaller scale to individual villains).
I'm not sure this evil sterotype exists in Glorantha, there's far more doing evil for what is thought to be for good reasons. So you send the Crimson Bat to eat the souls of those rebels rather than take heavy casualties among your own troops to dislodge them. Your wizards and knights aren't sacrificing virgins and slaughtering babies because they are evil but because there is a reason to do so - maybe they've found the best way of strengthening a castle wall is to bury a baby alive in the foundations. That someone else might achieve the same result in a different way just doesn't occur to them or they don't believe it's as effective - and in Glorantha not believing it's as effective makes it less so, at least for the individual.
I guess one of the things we're missing from the HQ system for Glorantha is an explanation of the motivations of the really nasty groups such as Thanatar, Thed, Krasht and Cacademon. Basically they make the Lunar Empire look nice and friendly by comparison but they still have comprehensible motivations.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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