[Glorantha] Re: Moved from: HeroQuest-RPG Re: The Missionaries

[Joerg Baumgartner]

Jane Williams

> What they're unable to do is (checking exact words) "But the important
> point is that they were INCAPABLE of knowing or understanding this--
> and many other things"

> Not incapable of doing it *after* understanding it, incapable of
> understanding it in the first place.

Would it be easier for you to accept that they were cursed to ignorance by
exposure to the Darkness? It is like a virus that attacks certain thought
processes. It takes an outside influence to circumvent the blockade.
Similar to the Closing.


> It's not even a case of the obvious mundane explanation
> of knowledge having been lost over generations, it's
> actual damage (yeah, mental, not physical, no surprises
> there) that prevents that knowledge being absorbed. Which
> is a wonderful, fascinating idea!

> We know exactly (well, more exactly) what had been damaged. We
> know what did it. "parts of their souls that had been damaged
> by the overabundance of Darkness in the universe."

> Both quotes from Greg's last post, back here:
> http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HeroQuest-RPG/message/29510

Sounds very much like "Sanity Loss", for exactly the same causes. I
suppose walking up to the edges of the world shard you happen to occupy
can cause some severe flaws in your reasoning.


> Like, if an imbalance of elements can damage souls over a long
> period of time, will the far shorter Windstop have any similar
> but lesser effects on a few people? How does one then cure this?

Rather than an imbalance of elements, the Windstop caused a separation of
soul. From a certain POV, all the Orlanthi in the area affected became
walking dead. I wonder if some Humakti shared this POV...


> Looks like those missionaries knew, but that's a real case of
> knowledge that's been useless for millenia and hence lost.
> So go and ask the ancestors... Plot hook, scenario hook....

Question: Was it possible to reach the ancestors during the Windstop? In a
certain sense, they are subcults of Orlanth and Ernalda.

Were the wyters functional as conduit to the Otherworld, or were they
reduced to mere guardian beings?

What about lesser daimons from the Storm Realm bound into objects? Again,
are they independent of the Great Gods, or fragmental aspects? What about
Hero Cults?

> Damage is specified as being to soul, not to spirit or essence.

To the breath, to use Orlanthi terminology. Which definitely was the case
during the Windstop, and which required missionaries (aka "New Breathers")
to overcome.

> The missionaries are theists, so that's their area of interest
> and expertise. I wonder if the same sort of damage would also
> have happened to the bits of brain tuned to the other magical realms?

Brain? For worshippers of Orlanth, the organ attuned is breath. (i.e. an
organ that extends beyond the mere skin of an individual.)


For Ernaldans I don't know what else there is; breath is part of the
equation, but can't be the whole answer.