Re: What does death by "natural causes" look like in Glorantha?

From: donald_at_fTONs5eIdFCB22TnAtJQtkNgLDH6SSS0EaHpyu0E0TBa3gD-wRygIQbiCyN4N9T_H720m
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:41:24 -0000


> Just looked it up in Storm Tribe. Shocked to see CA doesn't have the
> Life rune! Didn't she have it in Cults of Prax? In any case, very odd
> because the text says that "she is life."
> Same source though: "The cult abhors all violence, death and bloodshed.
> .... They do not even allow mercy killings for people with incurable
> wounds or disease: when it comes to a choice between suffering and
> death, they always chose to allow suffering." (emphasis added)

There's a difference between mercy killings and allowing someone to die because otherwise they would suffer. To CA that difference is absolutely critical, other healers not so much. CA does not have enough healing to heal everything much as she would like to. So there are times when her priestesses stand aside and allow Humakt to win. Learning that I suggest is the difference between a wild healer and one in charge of a hospital.

> But in the real world, such people are usually quite
> ill already, with greatly reduced ability to enjoy life. In this thought
> experiment, it seems to me that old age often looks quite different in
> Glorantha. Old people sometimes (when healing is available) aren't
> debilitated by lingering disease or poorly healed injuries due to
> magical healing.

I don't think in the vast majority of cases old age looks any different in Glorantha. Most people only have access to limited healing, particularly healing magic so they age from undiagnosed ailments and poorly healed injuries.

The exceptional case you used as an example may well end in a story. Perhaps a healer fumbles their medicine roll. Or it's a new disease there is no known cure for. Or there's plague in the city, does his healer stay to protect him in case he catches it or do they go to those who need urgent treatment?

It may well be there are some people whose only heroic ability is old age and live to be two or three hundred or more.

-- 
Donald Oddy


           

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