> All of these are dodges around my question.
The only idea so far which isn't a dodge is time poisoning. As Bruce Mason put it,
>> There's an interesting idea. Old age as a sort of poisoning by time. Some
>> species have natural immunity to it (Brithini and Mostali) others have enough
>> power to hold it off for a long time but Time is the one force that healers
>> struggle to oppose. I find that quite evocative. I can imagine a healer
>> looking at someone and saying "I'm sorry, he's too full of time. It has
>> eaten his brain and most of his insides and worn grooves into his body.
>> There's no way to heal that."
I like this so much (particularly "he's too full of time") that I am now persuaded that aging and death by old age look pretty much the same in Glorantha as in real life, albeit for different reasons. I actually think much the same of disease: namely, that although magic healing is powerful and widespread, magical illness is even more powerful and more widespread. There just aren't enough healers to cure everyone of everything; those healers who get so powerful that they can easily thrash most disease spirits begin to attract bigger and nastier disease spirits who wish to fight them for dominance. In the end, Malia may just send a band of marauding broo to make an end of this annoying healer who unfairly persecutes her favorite children.
Ryan
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