On Tue, 2005-21-06 at 17:33 +0100, Jane Williams wrote:
> Sorry here too: for some reason I'm a bit
> over-sensitive to that at the moment.
> Though I agree that writing at 2am can be a bad idea,
> esp. if you have to be up at 6.
Indeed. And no harm done. :)
> Yes, I'd agree. When an entire culture is based around
> one magic system, that system will cover every major
> aspect of their lives. No gaps.
Except I don't think that ever happens, does it? Even the Orlanthi in Sartar, who are about as theistic as you get, have spirits involved. Presumably this has to do with the fact that the world really IS made up of all 3, and so you have to acknowledge that in some way. I suppose some cultures make the other types all enemy entities (the Orlanthi certainly seem to see the majority of spirits as hostile or at least problematic) but they are still there.
The fact is that the whole 3 world system is odd to me in some ways. I know Greg has said that there is a point to it and concentration and the Hero Wars are involved, so I'm trusting when we get something like ILH2 and a better explanation of concentration we'll understand it all a bit more.
But from a gaming point of view, it seems to just introduce problems. There seems to be no line dividing what is a spirit or a god or an essence. To read Yinkin's myth, it seems that all beasts except cats are spirits, but I don't know if that is true. Everything else seems to be potentially any of them. So other than how you worship it (and whether you get penalties if you do it while concentrated) how can you tell what it "really" is? Do the different pantheons even have God or Spirit only aspects? Storm Tribe seems to include some spirit entities, as does the Water Tribe and possibly even Fire Tribe to hear the Orlanthi tell the story, so the worlds aren't at war with each other. And yet it seems there really is some kind of important difference from a Gloranthan point of view. As has been said, from a gaming point of view, it really doesn't seem to matter except in such way is you can help tell interesting stories.
Misapplied worship seems a penalty for no good reason on people. Especially since it seems really easy to avoid for the most part, as we are doing with Inora/The White Princess, except for bits that are canonically specified to be misapplied worship.
Then there are "common magic religions" like Lanbril, which seem to transcend these things. (Although why Thievery is transcendental and Death is not escapes me.)
SO from a gaming point of view, I ignore most of it. I don't believe in misapplied worship, I think all religions are heavily mixed and concentration is actually cutting yourself off from a bit of your own pantheon, since some of it is mixed as well. And I will happily find/create any entity that allows a player to do what they need for their character. Since I can't figure it out, I ignore the parts that get in the way of gaming. (as much as the theoretical discussion, digest level, can be interesting.)
LC
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