>But children come down with a pox, people die from things growing
>inside them, improper diet opens the way for alien entities to
>invade a person, both rich and poor have particular ailments they
>are suseptible to, and certain creatures (like mosquitoes) are
>known to sometimes carry a curse that they can deliver to the unwary.
I would add maladies that are dependent on what gods they worship and their enemies. E.g. a sun worshipper would be see depression as caused by creatures of darkness. Or a Carmenian might regard a death as the result of a Spolite curse.
>In fact, in MY Glorantha not every powerful healing cult can cure
>any malady.
>Different cultures have diseases that they are unable to cure.
>Chalana Arroy, the Ultimate in healing and curing, can theoretically
>cure any disease (heck, he can cure the ultimate disease--death!)
However an individual priestess or temple can still not know the magic required for a particular disease. To my mind ignorance of the right cure, followed by lack or time or materials will be the big obstacles to getting cured. When it is possible to go into the Gods world and ask Chalana Arroy it becomes possible to cure pretty much anything. But the resources involved make doing that prohibitive.
>>But a shaman would presumably have a much harder time
>> with an essential or daimonic illness.
>
>
>Yes, the Alien World modifier would apply here.
This means that a typical Ernaldan healer is going to be at a significant disadvantage compared to a typical Kolating shaman in dealing with disease spirits which appear to be the commonest cause of diseases.
So much so that a beginning Shaman who doesn't even specialise in healing or disease is going to be equal to a master healer with many years experience.
Perhaps the difference is that a shaman goes into the spirit world and destroys the spirit while an Ernaldan just drives it away from the patient (which happens in the material world).
>> Or would the
>> usual solution just be to try and magically bolster the person's
>> health so that they can more easily recover on their own?
>
>At this moment, the term "bolster the person's health" as a combat
>against disease rang as a concept that doesn't exist in Glorantha.
>I will cogitate upon that.
I would reword it as "strengthen a person's body and soul to resist the spirits of Malia". Or whatever the perceived cause of the illness.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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