Question about GLornatha Cult Spells.

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Hey yall, I got the SPell book in GREAT JOB BRY!!!!

OK, there is not reference to Glorantha cults in the book, which is no big deal. I do have a question though..

Is there a limit to how many spells a cult may have access too, this is pretaining to RuneMagic, Divine, Spirit, and Special.

Spells in the book (Which there are a lot of) are perfect fo r certain cults.

An inquiring mind wants to know..

I will share my new cult spell list with all once completed...

 

[TRose]

Don't think there ever been a limit on how many spells a cult should have. Just that smaller cults have fewer spells. I do think certain spells that are used in worship , such as Cairn of worship and Celebration of Faith, should be "free" if you put a limit on number of spells. I have a feeling some of old timers could discuss who gets what spells for the next year and still not reach a consensus .

 

[weasel_fierce]

I'd base it more around which spells are appropriate, than a set number per se.

 

[soltakss]

Well, the old guidelines had one divine spell for a spirit cult, 2 or 3 for a minor cult and 3 or more for a major cult (I think, going from memory).

The old Common Divine spells were available to small cults as all 1 point spells and some larger cults had all Common Divine.

There is some justification for limiting the number of spells as a more powerful and wide-ranging deity would probably have more areas of ability than a small focussed deity.

However, HeroQuest has a tendency to have far more spells/feats/spirits available than RQ did. Some of these would equate to Rune Magic, some to Divine Magic, some to Sorcery and some to skills, but the fact is that HQ has more spells than clasic RQ. Since RQM seems to be following or shadowing HQ Glorantha, it makes sense that RQM cults would have more spells than RQ2/3 cults.

So, I wouldn't limit the number of spells available to a cult. Nor would I give a clan spirit cult 20 spells or a Great God 1 spell.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Thanks Guys, especially Simon...

I will place my extractions on this site when done...

 

[StephenT]

I know this is last week's topic so this may be too late, but I've had a thought:

It's true that large cults should generally have more spells than small ones. However, the small cults should probably have one or two really unique and useful spells that nobody else has access to - because that's the only reason they'd still exist, and why some people bother to worship them instead of all following the major gods...

 

[soltakss]

Yes, small cults/minor demigods will have 2-3 spells. Even Spirit Lords have a Divine Spell and a Battle/Spirit/Rune Magic spell.

They aren't always unique, though.

People tend to make spells for new cults unique where they perhaps shouldn't be. Many war gods have True (Weapon), many Solar Gods have Light/Ignite and so on.

Where minor gods are useful is that they provide a spell to a pantheon or area that is not otherwise available.

So, a Clan Ancestor might provide Lantern to an Orlanthi Clan because he held the Shield of Brilliance.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

As an extension to this topic, which I happened to start :lol:

Now, with affiliated gods, is there a limit to those spells? I understand about the Major, minor, and sucky gods, but how many would they lend? Also, would it be more to the deities line of spells, or to those of the afffiliated god?

Example: Would a Healing God in the same pantheon as a war god grant healing spells to the war god? It would seem to be a conflict to me..

I am making my own pantheon up that is why I am asking...

Started a game with one town, now I have 3 countries laid out. AMAZING!!!

 

[atgxtg]

In the past, that is actually one of the reasons why Healing Gods associated with War gods.

Chalana Arroy, one of the major healing gods in Glorantha is associated with several cults, and provides access to healing magic to just about anyone who asks. In return, the other cults tend to provide protection, aide, and support for the healers.

The Warriors protect the healers from being eaten by monsters. Farmers provide food for the healers. Merchants help to provide income, account it. Sages help with cataloging heabs and remedies, and so forth. So it is a communal effort. If the healers didn't heal the warriors then the warriors couldn't protect the healers from harm.

That is the key. If a god doesn't serve the community, no matter how great their spells are, they won't be accepted as part of the community. Look up some historical healing gods, and you'll see that they all work to heal others in their culture. There are also a lot of war gods that are also healing gods. Most cultures have strong links between life and death.

One of the other ways the cults interact was that while the healers would practically never refuse to heal someone, any payment/donations were not enforced by the healers, but by adventurers own cults. This kept people from abusing the healers and ensured a good relationship betwen the cults.

Few things are worse than trying to explain to your Humakti, Olanthi, Uroxi or even Isarries Rune Lord why you been abusing the healers.

 

[soltakss]

Now, with affiliated gods, is there a limit to those spells? I understand about the Major, minor, and sucky gods, but how many would they lend? Also, would it be more to the deities line of spells, or to those of the afffiliated god?

No real limit, but normally an Associated Cult would grant one divine spell and maybe one runemagic spell. Any more and you are getting into shared subcults rather than associate cults. I am sure there are some examples of getting more than one divine spell from an associate cult, though.

Example: Would a Healing God in the same pantheon as a war god grant healing spells to the war god? It would seem to be a conflict to me..

It depends on the pantheon and cults in question.

The Divine Cult of St Mary the Virgin may well grant a healing spell to St George or St Michael to support them.

In Glorantha, Erissa grants a spell to Yelm, Chalana Arroy grants a spell to Orlanth and Xiola Umbar to Zorak Zoran.

What you need to do really is to come up with a good rationale for the association and for the spell. So, if you had a wargod who married a healer then perhaps the healer would grant a spell to the wargod. If the wargod did something in the past that helped a healer or the healer helped the wargod then that would have some kind of associated cult benefit.

I am making my own pantheon up that is why I am asking...

Making up panthoens is fun. It's sometimes easier to take published deities and file the serial numbers off, change the names and keep most of the spells. The RQ3 templates were good for that.

There is a danger that it is easy to take all the wargod spells and put them together to make a generic wargod. That's the wrong approach for me. What I'd do is to work out what the god did, what it is famous for and what powers it should have then work the spells out from that. There are so many spells available nowadays, from RQ3/RQM and the web, that you should be able to put together interesting deities without too much of a problem.