[Glorantha] Re: Chaotics in the Lunar army, and Pelorian Mysticism

[Simon Hibbs]

Re: Chaotics in the Lunar army?

>How does this go? Do the chaotics join up, "foreign legion"
>style with draconian dicipline imposed on them? Are the broo
>castarated to make it possible for them to focus on thing
>other than rutting?

There are rumours of Broo breeding programs and such. I think
these do happen, but way out beyond the official borders of the
Empire as the isolated pet projects of Roan-Ur and his ilk.
I don't believe the breeding programs are Imperial Policy,
but Foreign Legion style slave troops units may well be.

>What about chaotic humans and ogres? I suspect one can't advance
>to a very high rank if one is chaotic, but such humans could make
>good soldiers.

They'd make terrible soldiers, but great terrorists. Ogres and
Vampires are used to living covertly among human populations
so they would make good spies, terrorists and assassins.

I don't believe the army uses chaotic troops overtly alongside
regular units, they'll keep them seperate from regulars as much
as possible in the same way that they use the Bat as an
independent unit. Think Gas and Nuclear Weapons - you don't
want your own men anywhere near when you deploy.

>Is Illumination being taken into account here, or are Illuminates
>by definition no longer chaotic?

Some Illuminates who were previously chaotic nolonger detect as
being so. That was the case orrginaly and it's still the case now.
Nothing significant about Illumination has changed other than the
rules implementation. Whether or not they realy are chaotic or not
is deliberately ambiguous IMHO.

>(My supposition is that an Illuminate would be quite able to rise
>through the Lunar ranks, as long as s/he demonstrated
>an absence of harmful and/or self-destructive chaotic urges).

Remember, Illumination is a significant and traditional part of
the Lunar Religion and it's precursor traditions. Only a very
tiny minority of Illuminates have anything whatever to do with
chaos, and the fact that they are illuminates and have anything
to do with chaos are independent facts that aren't necesserily
related to each other.

>Actually, going back to the Ogre dietary discussions of past
>weeks, does anyone think that Illumination would have an effect
>on Ogrish urges, or indeed their link with Cacodemon?

Illuminated humans still need to eat food, desire sex, feel
the cold just like everyone else, so I would guess that an
Illuminated Ogre would still feel the urge to eat human flesh,
etc, but the relationship with cacodemon would probably be
significantly changed. Illuminates are liberated from their
spiritual ties and can make their own way from a religious
point of view. That doesn't mean they will just walk away from
the cacodemon cult, they are just as likely to simply become
the demon rather than worship one.

The idea of chaotic illuminates troubles me. If Illumination is
realization of the Great Self, what does that mean for beings
that have no Great Self? Perhaps they become aware of their
condition - they look into where their own souls (to use the
general term) should be and become conciously aware of their
own emptiness. They know for a fact that they are just empty
monsters with no hope of an afterlife or anything more than
what they are, but equaly it could be quite liberating. They
know the score, and know that their only chance is to make the
best of what they have. They could go either way, an orgy
of bitter self-gratification, or attempting to make the best
of things as they are, but of course the fact they are
chaotic and the factors that lead to that are likely to lead
them down the former path.


Simon Hibbs