Re: a sense of deja vu

From: David Cake <dave_at_DOpp2yLIcsKCCUopePS-yWk5kxI_om3eHfbWNpaG-gb0R9P3cKZPrP-sB8AW7twTx0FtOWs>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:56:26 +0800


At 6:18 PM +1300 18/10/10, Peter Metcalfe wrote:
>On 10/18/2010 12:01 PM, julianlord wrote:
>
>> This is true, but I can't help but feel that this is the smoking gun
>> that here we have yet another remnant of God Learner
>> experimentation.
>
>Except the God Learners were nowhere near the Blue Moon Plateau and
>weren't in the habit of making magical changes in cults from a great
>distance (however they would have *loved* to be able to make such
>changes...).

        I didn't mean to imply the God Learners actually interfered with the cult, just that they wrote a document based on the God Learner version of what the world looked like. These various wildly disparate cultures all worship the same celestial body, ergo they MUST be the same.

        (And yes, they were nowhere near the plateau - as I said elsewhere, I think the God Learners didn't even get the bit about which celestial body really right as they were getting their info second hand from the Dara Happans).

> > The write up is almost *blatant* in its descriptions that the various
>> groups of worshippers round Glorantha actually have nothing
>> whatsoever to do with each other, and yet somehow they all belong to
>> the same cult ?? God Learners woz here. :)
>
>I think you are reading too much into the style of the cult writeup.
>A similar complaint could be made about Lodril as present in the Cult
>Compendium.

        Yep, the Lodril writeup from that era is also blatant God Learnism, though less obviously clueless than Annlla. In the God Learner write up, they were at least writing about gods whose mythology they had heard directly from its worshippers, even if they were bending it to stretch. Most of the Annilla writeup is religions that they admit they know almost nothing about, but theorise should be associated.

>If it were to be written up today, the Uz Cult would be
>much different in appearance, namely being based on the Pelorian Blue
>Moon Story (as present in Troll Facts #3) and removing the spell from
>Artmal (It's not that Artmal doesn't provide a runespell to his mother
>The basis of the cult in secrets and assassination would be unchanged.

        I think that is a very big stretch. Troll Facts #3 was known at the time of the Annilla writeup.

        And I don't think the story in Troll Facts #3 would be considered a particularly good representation of the Pelorian Blue Moon story any more.

        I agree on the removal of the Artmal cult - but it was all but an irrelevant detail at the time, I think, unless you happened to run an RQ3 campaign with Veldang using the Annilla writeup from Troll Gods. I wonder if anyone ever did this, ever? (I know I had a very keen interest in all things Pamaltelan at the time, and I don't recall ever hearing anyone do that)

>For the other two human groups, I really don't see any evidence of
>assassin cults in Teshnos, Fonrit and Kothar. Teshnan assassins would
>be the gloranthan thuggee and worship Thanatar. Fonritan assassins on
>the other hand would be associated with Jokutu, Garangordos's murderer.

        I certainly agree that Annilla as a secretive assassin cult doesn't seem at like anything I would expect to see from Veldang worship, or in Fronrit generally.

>Looking at Revealed Mythologies, I would associate the Artmali Blue Moon
>Cults more strongly with power over the tides (which is absent in the Uz
>version) and extend this from simple water control to magics.

	Sounds good to me.
	The Artmali certainly have access to tidal powers (which are 
described as secret), worship of The Blue Streak directly seems the most reasonable pathway.
	Cheers
		David

           

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