- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Jane Williams"
<janewilliams20_at_y...> wrote:
> There's not a lot of point in comparing
> (modern) RW religion to Gloranthan religion, because Gloranthan
> religion actually has some (lots of) relevance to everyday life.
But
> to geekdom - yes.
Well, thanks for the slap down, Jane. I can't help but find it
ironic that it was you who on the hw-rules list took such umbrage at
Benedict's suggestion that magic doesn't work in the RW. I'm not
personally religious, but I don't think those of my friends who are
would agree with your statement. There is more to 'relevance to
everyday life' than zappy magic powers.
But IMO the problems with the geekdom parallel are two-fold:
- Geeks don't have to be good at what they do. For every superdooper
programmer, there is no doubt at least one mediocre nerd, who
make spend the same passion and time in geekery but to little actual
avail. Devotees are called to their god, they are potent and
extraordinary by definition. There are those who are more powerful
and those who are less so, but they are all different
from 'ordinary' people in meaningful and potent ways. I really
wouldn't say that about some specialist who may know quite a lot
about some arcane topic and spend a lot of time on the subject. If
so, every academic, every hard-core football fan, every karaokeoverdosing
wannabe popstar, etc counts as a 'devotee'!
- Devotee is not a job, but a calling. To an extent, a community
will make minimax rational decisions about whether it supports a
devotee, but only to a point. Let's face it, the _rational_ choice
for the Heortlings would be to look at those prosperous, happy
Tarshites and abandon Ol' Windy...
All the best
Mark