Re: The Watchful House of Saint Gaspodi

From: Denethor Hurin <sinherit_at_...>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 22:58:52 -0700 (PDT)

     I see no reason why this order couldn't exist as Oliver wrote it up. Religious minorities have existed in the past until or unless surpressed and we might be justified in thinking that the Orlanthi didn't think them worth surpressing. (I think the Hospitaliers still have an outpost in Jureusalem?). The 2 chief questions would be what do they live off of and, given that they're celibate, where do they recruit from? Recruitment is actually the easier of the 2 to answer. In my Glorantha I attribute the difference between Humakti and Uroxi to the fact that the Humakti are drawn from the upper class Heortling society the way that Odin worshippers were drawn from Norse aristocrats while the Uroxi get their recruits from young and ambitious stickpickers who'd prefer a short life to spending another day as a stickpicker. But there's no shortage of stickpickers in Heortling society so there's no reason that other military units such as the Watchful House of Saint Gaspodi couldn't recruit from there as well.

     But that said, how do they get their daily bread? Funds from the West would be one possibility. A scenario in one Hero Wars book where the players had a chance to end up with the revenues from a couple of Seshnelian villages in return for a phony exorcism point to this being within the bounds of possibility. A traditional alliance between the Order and the Volsaxi might be another answer since the Volsaxi might not remember Gbaji too fondly either (Given that Orlanthis are tolerant of Valindings, Gargarthi, Eurmali, Humakti and all other manners of riffraff it would seem odd if they couldn't be accepting of some reasonably useful Malkioni as well). And of course there's the usual warrior's way of making a living: plunder and then invest. That would involve some diversion from their sentry duties but such had not been unknown in the past.

     The scenario question is the impact the Order's existence would make on the local magical ecology. The Order's ability to detect Illuminati could be a scenario buster or a scenario driver depending on how it was weaved into everything else. If a Lunar spy agency doesn't know about this Order and is in the habit of using Illuminati to do their infiltrations then they're going to be losing agents like flies without ever knowing why. ("Good Morning, Your Majesty! Is there a particular reason why the new merchant you're talking to is Illuminated?"). Finding out why their agents are being lost might be an interesting mission for Lunar players. Trying to discreetly stop a spy that the Order has spotted might be an interesting mission for Orlanthi. ("Get what information you can out of him but don't let him ask you questions!"). Later on, when the Lunars get wise to what's happening trying to keep the assasinations of Order members down to a minimim
might be an interesting job for any Orlanthi who wants to play bodyguard.


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