Interesting. What about their saints, though? Do they have the same attitude, except it's more normal because they are indeed supposed to teach their co-religionists knowledge and grant them power (and I suppose that in Wizardry, that's the same thing)?
Incidentally, something that has been bothering me - theists can encounter their gods (not the ones they're acting as right now, anyway) in God Planes and Hero Planes. Can monotheists encounter their saints anywhere? And how would they look like - more or less as they looked in life, or in a more "idealised" fashion?
>
> > One of the discussions on the old Glorantha Digest briefly mentioned Sir Meriatan going through something called the Doors of Iron on his heroquests, presumably in pursuit of more power and secrets to use against the Kingdom of War. That's the only mention of the Doors of Iron that I've encountered, however. I'm curious if someone might be able to shed more light on this subject?
>
> Without commenting on whether Meriatan ever traveled to an Otherworld place called the Door of Iron (certainly plausible - Meriatan is a powerful sorcerer-warrior, and certainly the sort of fellow who might engage in dangerous explorations of the Otherworld to gain sorcerous power), it is worth understanding that the Westerners approach such matters in a fundamentally different mindset than the theists.
>
> Most theists reenact the deeds of their gods when they heroquest; reinforcing their association with the divine power and gaining such powers as well. An Orlanthi tries to act as Orlanth, and so on.
>
> The Malkioni do not do this. The Malkioni explore and interact with the gods and spirits of the Otherworld in order to gain knowledge and power. Importantly, the Invisible God cannot be reached through such activities. The Malkioni acknowledge the existence of the gods, but the Loskalmi do not worship them and New Hrestoli wizards severely frown on those who try to incarnate those powers (which they view as God Learnerism).
>
> So the structure of a Loskalmi heroquest might go like this: We know that in the Otherworld, past the Dead Forest guarded by Krjalki is the Doors of Iron that leads to Mostal's Workshop. There the Vadeli stole the Iron Energy Prison and learned how to make the Seizure Enchantment that could capture the spirits used by the Hykimi. If the Vadeli abominations could learn this, we Men-of-All can as well! But we shall do this with good thoughts, virtue, and self-control, rather than Vadeli evil. No harm can come when we act with virtue, right?
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeff
>