- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Solovay"
<asolovay_at_...> wrote:
>
...
> > > --- "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Err, charlatans *do* exist in Glorantha, with no need for
> > > > an Otherworld being (chaotic or otherwise) to feed energy
> > > > to.
...
>
> Some other possible contributors, off the top of my head, subject
> to correction:
>
> * In Glorantha, the placebo effects may be more pronounced. A
> charlatan comes to the stead and says "Give me ten pigskins for my
> ritual and I'll make the drought end." The steaders fall for it--
> but now you have an entire steadful of people who *believe* that
> Big Magic is going to end the drought. That belief alone might be
> enough to have an effect.
>
> * (Related) The charlatan may be getting magical power from the
> people he's fooled. He tells them that they're worshipping Big
> Juju, but there is no Big Juju--instead, all that magical worship
> energy is going to the charlatan himself. And maybe he can use
> that energy to do some magic--heal the sick, smite the unbeliever,
> that kind of thing--and thus perpetuate the scam.
In either case is the perpetrator actually a charlatan at all?
Thanks,