Gloranthan Charlatans (was Re: Chaos Magic)

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:42:01 -0000

In the first place, certainly. The hypothetical scamster has no drought magic, knows no gods, has no intention of helping the people- -his goal is to snagf some pigskins, put on a showy smoke-and- mirrors display, then sneak out in the dead of night and take the skins to market. It just so happens in this case that a whole steadful of credulous peasants ends up believing him enough that *they* make it rain, but I don't think that makes him any less dishonest. (Real world equivalent: A faith-healer who doesn't actually believe any of the hooey and is just in it for the money and the girls--but Joe Schmoe comes to the tent revival, believes the preacher, and actually is able to really stop drinking. The effect was real, but the preacher was still a charlatan.)

The second case is a bit more blurry. He's told the folks that he's offering a connection to a real god, but all he's giving them is the little power a mortal can generate from their hijacked worship. So he's certainly deceptive, and to the extent that what he returns is less than the people should reasonably get from their worship, to that extent he's a charlatan. (e.g. In game terms, perhaps the village's worship efforts ought to produce, say, a general +2 augment when fighting disease. Instead, that much worship has just juiced up the preacher himself to the extent that he can use an occasional "heal disease" feat. The peasants might not know it, but if they'd put just as much effort into worshipping the White Lady, they'd have gotten a better return--so I'd say the preacher, by fooling them, counts as a charlatan.

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