At 18:36 04/17/2001 -0000, you wrote:
>
>> The Brithini certainly acknowledge the existence of gods, spirits
>and
>> demons of all types. Over the millennia of their existence they have
>> developed spells against every one of those foes.
>> I labelled the Brithini "atheists" because they have never
>uncovered any
>> evidence that can be proved to be anything other than a natural
>law. Their
>> knowledge was established by superior beings of a previous age and
>the
>> modern Brithini follow those ancient instructions now.
>> They do not have a God, but a force. They do not worship God, or
>even
>> worship at all. Hence atheists.
>> They consider the other Malkioni to be deluded by personifying the
>creative
>> energy, etc.
>
>Hmm, I see. Could a (loose) analogy be drawn between the
>(Gloranthan) theists and a cargo cult? They have had a "superior
>power" fall into their laps, which they can use but not necessarily
>fully comprehend, and hence personify to make comprehensible? From
>the perspective of Gloranthan atheists, of course. In this schema
>the Malkioni would be a similar cult with a "better" understanding of
>this power, which they abstract (correctly) further than theists, but
>still (incorrectly) tend to personify or at least attribute with
>emotion such as compassion. The atheists then work directly with the
>prevailing an objectively extant "theoscape" without being distracted
>by projecting their own expectations onto the true forces (runes?).
>Does that sound about right?
It is one way that they might explain it.
Or
a loose analogy where the Brithini are subatomic physicists and the theists
to be a new age cult that has learned from Science that they can control
matter by looking at it. The Malkioni, while still less deluded, don't know
the mathematics to comprehend fully.
>Hmm - I might also guess that the much-maligned God Learners role
>here is something akin to carrying out formal experimental method on
>the theoscape?
Yes, pretty much so.
The GL tried to apply pure Zzaburite principles to the world, but the
Brithini said they were just human beings and didn't really understand what
they were doing (like giving refined chemicals to monkeys).
The GL did some experiments and drew conclusions from them that they then
applied all over the place. However, they performed a classic category
error and doomed themselves with their misapplied laws and short sightedness.
>> >> The Brithini and Zzaburi don't believe in an afterlife, either.
>> >Hmm. Why not? do they not recognise the existance of the hero
>planes?
>> Some living Brithini remember being alive in the times when other
>people
>> have to go to the Hero Plane. But I think you mean Sorcery Plane
>here.
>
>Sorry, no, I meant the god planes - even with the whopping alien
>worlds modifier, could they not cross to the god planes and interact
>with the "dead" who have been so elevated? Or perhaps they would see
>this as something like a postmortem echo rather than an actual
>continuation after death?
Those things in the God and Spirit world are not dead.
The Brithini view them in somewhat the same way that a healthy living
person views undead.
Greg Stafford
Issaries, Inc. 900 Murmansk St., Suite 5; Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 452 1648 Fax: (510) 302 0385
Publisher of Hero Wars, Roleplaying in Glorantha See our site at:
<www.glorantha.com>