In message <g0ffbe+8bnr_at_eGroups.com> "Jamallo Kreen" writes:
>How best to learn about God Learners
>
>I'm cross-posting this to the Glorantha and HeroQuest groups, because
>I asked Greg Stafford a question and he suggested that I ask on Yahoo,
>and you two groups probably contain the best minds able to address my
>question.
>
>Here's the set-up: I played a PC in a Forgotten realms campaign in
>which the DM allowed another PC to ascend to demi-godhood. My PC
>"helped," and determined that he, too, would aim for divinity, but
>would go about it in a scientific and efficient manner, so he has
>engaged in many forms of abstruse study. I, the player, bought
>Mongoose's "Book of the Immortals," but was left fairly confused by
>much of it. Then, a couple of months ago, I discovered that Old D&D
>ran up to 36 levels, levels I had never known of for lack of playing
>Master Rules or buying the Rules Cyclopedia before AD&D. Now I know
>that D&D long ago passed Level 20 and left "Epic levels" in the dust
>as characters became Immortals. A couple of weeks ago I started
>reading about Glorantha and learned that the God Learners ALSO study
>divinity, but perhaps not for the same reason as my PC. Which leads
>to the question:
>
>Which book or two (any system, but preferably one available at less
>than fifty dollars on Amazon or eBay) will teach me most about the God
>Learners and what and how they are studying (*gods*, apparently)?
You're in luck. The most relevant books are in print - the Mongoose
RQ books "Jrustela" and "The Second Age". The first of those describes
exactly what the God Learners are doing while the second is the basic
background book for the period. I'm not sure how much they cost in
the US, in the UK they retail at 15-18 quid each but we often suffer
from an exchange rate of 2 pounds = 3 dollars or even 3 pounds = 4
dollars when it comes to retail pricing.
The God Learners are not trying to become divine but to manipulate the
gods to doing what they want.
For guidance on becoming an immortal the only mainstream publication
is the Second volume of the Imperial Lunar Handbook. However that's
very specific to Glorantha and the Lunar religion, which does include
sorcery. It's also not an easy book to follow without a lot of
background and understanding the HQ rules which means buying several
other HQ publications.
I could speculate about how a Gloranthan wizard might become a saint
using the scientific approach but nothing has been published so far
and there are others who've spent more time on that part of the
world. Nor am I sure how relevant it would be to another world.
--
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/