>HQ mentions The Book of Chal, and also lists the spell contents of Chal's
>Rules, Part Three.
>does anyone else know the topics or spell contents of parts 1, 2 or 4?
A few guesses spring to mind.
The first is that there are three teachings of Chal as described in the Intro: Glorantha and again in HeroQuest Voices - determining which life-flame you have, realizing that your life-flame is actually a divine manifestation and lastly that all life-flames are one. This doesn't fit as these teachings are tied with caste while the cult of Alen Somash Sa is one of the Moving Gods whose worshippers are outside Caste.
The second is that there might be five rules, one for each fiery aspect: Zitro Argon, Somash, Solf, Calyz and Furalor. This makes more sense than the first but still is flawed in that Part 3 does not seem particularly relevant to Somash or that surely Somash should receive part 2?
The third guess is that HeroQuest Voices expounds on a Cosmology of Six Worlds, with Sorcery perhaps being the Third World. But this doesn't fit very well as neither Theism or Animism are associated with books. Furthermore why would ASS learn this and nobody else?
The last guess is the name of Alen Somash Sa. Somash is the Sun God but Alen is a name not found anywhere else and so might be associated with sorcery. Whether Alen is associated with the God Learners or the Mostali is unknown.
Looking at Alen's spells, it's all about fighting Gods and Spirits. Confusingly Kab Tolat Solf is also about fighting gods and spirits but his magic is an affinity. KTS's affinity is explicable as Tolat was originally a spirit that went north to become a God. I'm unsure why fighting gods and spirits is so important to Teshnans. That it's useless against ordinary warriors is on the other hand understandable as the Teshnans are known to be useless warriors.
So we have a scripture out of at least three which involves fighting gods and spirits. The sequence that now springs to my mind is that the third world - the spell plane - is closest to the Hero Planes in which one would find Gods and Spirits as it is where the Great Error took place. So the Rule of Chal might be about protecting people from the various hazards that might exist on each sorcery plane.
Hence to complete the sequence:
Book 4 would deal with the hazards of the mortal world. In a simplified form, this reduces to the Book of Well-Being with its spell of health.
Book 5 would deal with the horrors of darkness and chaos.
Book 2 would deal with rival sorcery schools such as God Learners or Dwarves.
Book 1 would deal with abstract metaphysics and be considered almost useless.
As a guide, none of these spells in these books should have any combat focus. They would use the Sun's energies to protect the caster and to confound his opponents.
--Peter Metcalfe
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