>Ok. More questions on those logical westeners.
>How aware of chaos are people? And what is chaos in the western
>worldview?
Very aware, "Chaos" being the western word.
>One thing that chaos is, I'd think, that it's also a versatile energy
>source.
The Hell Plane
This region has no energy, or else an energy that sorcerers
cannot normally access. Creatures inhabit this sick region
and sometimes spill into the mundane world, where they
manifest as Chaos Creatures, demons and sons of the Devil.
HW:NB p30.
So sorcerers cannot normally use chaotic energy (perhaps it is utterly uncontrolled by their laws) except for one or two exceptions.
>I loved the reference in G:IttHW about the ruling class of
>sorcerers who use chaos to power their magic.
That's the tap spell and its usage is widely condemned. Although it yields easy energy for the sorcerer, I think far more is wasted.
>I would think chaos power is easy tho get.
I don't think so. There's a difference between the sorcerer using the logical laws of the cosmos to do magic and trying to impose his will upon fundamentally uncontrollable forces. Sure there could be in glorantha, beings that live in the formless protoplasm and force it into meaningful shapes for the essentials and luxuries of life, but this doesn't sound like the sort of thing a sorcerer could easily do.
>Chaos by it's nature seeks to
>corrupt, and a willing soul will propably find it very easy to construct
>his/her spells using the runes of chaos as the nodes. I'd also assume
>that it's fairly easy to just channel raw chaos essense at somebody.
I do think the prospective apprentice doing that will find that the Cosmos resists his attempts to import Chaos into the world. More so than contacting the spell plane IMO.
>What keeps this in check?
Malkion's Sacrifice or Zzabur's Great Spell (for theists and atheists respectively).
>I've seen very little references to chaos in
>the material about the West.
Chaos is a bad thing in the west and rightfully so. Nevertheless it does get used from time to time although such cases are often regretted afterwards.
When Knights from Dilis invaded Sog City in the Dawn Age, the sorcerers magically bored a great pit in Dilis leading straight to hell. IMO the only human inhabitants of Dilis now are the Poor Knights of Dilis who roam Loskalm as penitents, seeking someway to free plug the Pit.
There's the Gate of Banir that leads to the Demon Realm of Sorang described in the Glorantha: Book.
In a draft of the Loskalmi chapter, I once had a group of Loskalmi Wizards that attempted to nuke the Kingdom of War with chaotic magic but failed disastrously (and the matter hushed up). The order is suppressed but a copy of their tome "the Book of Dead Names" (i.e. what Necronomicon was meant to mean) is missing! Even if it is still true (I really created it as a plot hook more than a general Loskalmi tendency), it is an extreme aberration as the Goody Two-Shoes of Loskalm would normally never think about doing such a nasty thing.
The Vadeli are chaotics but have special spells to hide this.
There are a few chaotic Arkati (Arkat the Devil).
There's also the Ramalians and I think their beliefs are a slight perversion of Ethilrist's Atroxi Church (If Ethilrist was Calvinist, then the Ramalians might be Ranters).
I can't think of what the Seshnegi (or the Umathelans) might do about Chaos. They have Vadeli in any case.
>There are those delightful Borists, of
>course, and that brotherhood that specializes in saving souls from hell
>and chaos.
The Borists are damnable heretics because of their attitude to Chaos, the Galvosti only less so (I see their old kingdom as an Apartheid State with the elite Galvosti tapping a pagan populace) because they only do tapping and that upon pagans. As for Saint Gerome, the Inferno is probably the best source material.
>But what is the position of the churches?
They condemn it. If they catch you doing it, then you sit on the Stool of Penitence (i.e impalement) for quite some time or suffer some equally nasty punishment.
>What was/is Zzaburs position
>on chaos? (given that the "Blue Book of Zzabur" is the basis of sorcery)
He condemns it. He even destroyed the Spike because it was tainted with Chaos.
--Peter Metcalfe
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