Re: Bloodspiller magic?

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_e8J_3Drp6DVgXjnRN1I-V5F1L-6CmdRp3MfN0-oUt_ELPpx98jfxbFQXBN9OCMmCOBb>
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 17:56:08 +1200

At 08:41 a.m. 26/05/2008, you wrote:

>Since Jareel is still alive, [the bloodspillers] can't actually gain
>feats from
>her... I think.

Two points:

1. JarEel is a Lunar. Lunars worship not Gods but Immortals and gain all sorts of (lunar) magic, whether spells, charms or feats.
2. Simply because JarEel is alive does not preclude people from gaining magic through worshipping her. In fact to become a god or immortal in glorantha, you pretty much have to teach people a new form of magic.

>I'd like to have some idea about what sort of magic
>the bloodspillers wield.

Properly speaking the Bloodspillers are the elite of the Moonsword cult. I assume it's associated with either of the Crescent Moon phases or both.

If you really want grisly, you could have it so that each bloodspiller's sword is as strong as the amount of blood that he's spilt (whether his own and more usually somebody elses). People joining the Moonsword cult are ritually bled and the shed blood is used to craft a small knife (and the new initiates known as "little bleeders"). Through repeated bloodlettings and combats, the knife becomes bigger, stronger and faster.

Because this is a private cult, the blood you shed doesn't actually all go to your sword. Most of it goes to JarEel, the cultist that initiated you and the cultist in charge of you. So that means you can't just leave your moonsword lying about, you have a quota of blood you must shed with your moonsword every week.

Other possibilities are:

• that you can use any common magic of a foe whose blood you have shed as one-use magic.
• that in desperation, you could draw upon the blood in your moonsword to heal your own wounds.
• Supposedly on days of the Crescent Moon, JarEel can call upon the moonswords to act as one huge moonsword to scythe through whatever army she is facing.

--Peter Metcalfe