[Glorantha] So what about the tapping?

[Simon Hibbs]

From: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa at mail.student.oulu.fi>:

> A very interesting concept in Gloranthan Wizardry / Sorcery is tapping,
> and I don't necesserily mean the kind that leaves shrivelled up human
> husks behind.

All tapping is destructive. There is a very distinct difference between drawing
on the natural, renewable energies of the world and tapping. It's much like
the distinction between using renewable energy resources, or using
non-renewable energy resources in our world, but much, much worse.
Tapping, of any kind, isn't just using up a precious resource, it's actualy
permanently weakening "god's creation". It is uncreating part of the universe
created by god, and therefore an act of extreme hubris. The vast majority of
malkioni will have no truck with it - those that do are fringe weirdoes and
heretics that are generaly despised by right-thinking folk such as New Hrestoli,
Rokari, etc.

I think what you mean by tapping is actualy just drawing on natural sources
of 'free' (as in wild, loose, undifferentiated) energy. I'm not sure how this is
handled in HeroQuest which doesn't have Magic Points.

> Obviously you can even tap the forces in the mundane world, as witnessed
> by the decayed nature of Brithini lands (or is it the result of too much
> tapping of the "local" hero/essence plane?)

The Brithini are soulles atheists and so don't see tapping as having a
moral dimension.


Simon Hibbs