davecake

This is perhaps my most hated bit of terminology called confusion, because Agimori and Men-And-A-Half haven’t been synonyms in Glorantha for decades, but because many people ignore Pamaltela but love playing in Prax it persists, even perpetuated by Chaosium. Agimori are essentially humans who have a skin colour and other features resembling earth humans of African ancestry. It is the dominant ancestry in most of Pamaltela, though it has many variations, including in size, religion, culture etc like the other. It also includes varying degrees of mixing with other ancestries in various parts of Pamaltela - a lot of mixing with Veldang in Fonrit, probably with Wareran and others in Umathela, with Vithelan people in the north east, etc. And the fiwan, Pamaltelan Hsunchen, mostly seem to be Agimori appearing but there are again a lot of variation in size and otherwise. There are also at least two variant mythological origins for the Agimori people that represent variant ethnicities, but that are heavily mixed and in any case not usually distinguished by outsiders. One small, unusual, ethnic group of people who are Agimori settled in Prax from Pamaltela centuries ago, and have retained their unusual height and strength, and some other big variations (like different temperature tolerances and need for water). This is partly because they are almost exclusively endogamic for both cultural and magical reasons, and are now very infertile with others. But it’s also because they have continued the same set of magical preparations and taboos for all that time as well, and effectively have turned themselves into (or maintained themselves as?) a magically sustained separate species. They are radically distinct in many ways, and I think referring to them primarily as Agimori in outside of game use is not useful, because it spreads confusion. Being tall has nothing to do with being Agimori, there are pygmy Agimori (many in the North-East Pamaltelan jungles especially), and everything in between. But it’s a very distinct characteristic of the Men-And-A-Half. The ethnic ancestors of the Men-And-A-Half that remained in Pamaltela seem mostly to have retained a lot less of their distinctness as a group, perhaps because they have been surrounded by many other Agimori ethnic groups. They are still generally tall, but not as much, and they are not as strict or unified in their lifestyle, including such things as drinking water. They are found in the city of Deshmador in Fonrit. It’s possible there may be other groups of traditionalist Men-And-A-Half remaining in Pamaltela, but I haven’t heard much definitive either way. Of course, the Man-And-A-Half may refer to themselves as Agimori, they are the only Agimori most of them ever encounter, references core parts of their mythology (they are descended from the Agi, and clearly they try to preserve their close ancestry to them, rather than drink water etc and blend with the rest of humanity), and serves to distinguish them from other Praxian tribes. But as players, there are a bunch of other Agimori that are not Men-And-A-Half that we are going to encounter, so it is going to get confusing. Western Hrestoli sorcerers from Pithdaros - many of whom have left their homeland and can be found elsewhere, including Sir Narib the sorcerer that is a close ally of Argrath and leads a unit of the Sartar Magical Union. Descendants of people who travelled the world in the God Learner era, as part of the Middle Sea Empire - and settled down in other parts of the world with the Closing centuries ago. Fonritian sailors are regular visitors to Nochet - and those inhabitants of Laskal and other areas that have been recruited as Wolf Pirates and follow Harrek. And that’s all without losing the basic RQ homelands - of course in Pamaltela it’s the default for most of humanity. But when we do it, it can get confusing. Tl;Dr - most Agimori are just normal humans with features resembling African ancestry. They are not notably tall or strong or fireproof, live many places but most often in Pamaltela, and are very diverse ethnically, culturally, etc, and freely reproduce with other human ancestries, and have. The Men-And-A-Half are an ethnic group in Prax that is Agimori, tall, strong, very heat tolerant, very culturally distinct and uniform, and interbreed with other groups very little both for cultural and magical reasons. It’s really useful to keep this distinction in mind whenever we use the term Agimori.

Specifically, the material on the Mostali has already been updated and made it into other publications. Specifically, Elder Secrets for RQ3, and for RQG spread between the Guide/Glorantha Sourcebook, Glorantha Bestiary, and there should be a Mostal cult write up in the forthcoming Cults book. I’m hard put to think of another area where the Different Worlds material was the only source for such important info for so long, though. Most of the material that was only in DW and never reprinted was non-Gloranthan - there is a fair bit of that, though.

Of course the best place for stats of typical Pavis and environs stats will be the Chaosium new Pavis and Big Rubble material, when it gets published hopefully this year (or at least the next). I know a lot of work has gone into the stats for this (I did a small part of it). But of course, we can but wait. Do take a good look at the four Sandheart books especially. Of particular interest because they are set before Argraths capture of Pavis upsets the apple art in a major way, potentially making some of the fantastic Pavis and Big Rubble Companion material no longer as applicable to the new timeline. I think the Sandheart books are terrific books that would fit perfectly with MOB and others Sun County and Pavis material from the RQ3 Renaillance, and also the RQ2 classics (if only I hadn’t already run that material with my current players!), and so should go beautifully with the P&BR Companion material. The Pavis ones from Beer With Teeth are also worth a look, but especially the Gifts of Prax. Two things that haven’t got a lot of attention on the JC, but might be very useful for your specific needs, are Rubble Runners, Jon Hunter’s book of nicely developed and individualised Pavis NPCs, and Drew Bakers Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon, which details a single location in the Rubble along with four short scenarios set around it, but also has some general information about the Rubble and life in it. I will be wonderful to have a lot of the P&BR Companion available, and the JC will make it available to many more people than saw it back in the day. I’m very familiar with the new material, including creating stats for official publications etc, and I’ve read pretty much everything on the JC too. I’d be quite happy to help with this effort how I can.

Secret Illuminated individuals stealing magic from other cults is something that happens much more in rpg games I think. It makes for great villains, but it requires maintaining a complex double life in order to get some cool magic that you can’t really use in public, so Fire gods in Chaos or Darkness cults etc isn’t going to happen very often - and it kinds of ignores that Illumination is a transformative experience that is just as likely to change your motivations away from personal power. Illuminated conspiracies, which cover for each other and are able to set up, say, their own Mallia shrines with their co-conspirators, or plot and sponsor infiltration of an important cult with a specific aim in mind. These make even better villains, because they can have quite sophisticated motivations - usually because they have convinced themselves it’s not abuse, just an easy path to power that they need for reasons. This is why Lunars can be such great villains - well, it seems terrible to you, but their motivations are clear (or some of them can be duping or using others, etc, even better). Illuminates that have motivations that go beyond personal power, and into changing or creating the mythic world some how are even more fun. They are going to heal the rift between Orlanth and the Red Goddess to bring peace, that’s why they are in both cults and trying to make the Orlanth cult less anti-Chaotic. That Illuminated Lhankor Mhy only joined Thanatar to destroy it from the inside, he just needs to learn a few cult secrets first. And so on. Tragedy and a little madness is always good. It doesn’t even need to be powerful or even obviously morally wrong, just trying too hard to push against the status quo, and you have a great antagonist. Eg an Illuminated hero of Orlanth Thunderous that is also a fervent believer in democracy and equality and wants to destroy the Orlanth Rex cult (and somehow just shrugs of all those spirits of reprisal) ( or the equivalent for Yelm). Or, of course, trying to rebuild whole cults and social systems to support some mystic agenda, do what Sheng or Arkat or the Golden Dragon Emperor or the EWF did on a smaller scale. Plenty of opportunity for mystic heroquesting to make a lot of trouble. Just the plain acquisition of personal power from multiple cults is a valid way to use Illumination - but it’s somewhat implausible and far too melodramatic to be the main, or only, way.

That is how I play it too.

Oh, yes there are, for sure. But the distinction is about likelihood of Occlusion, rather than likelihood of Illumination. And an Examiner can approve someone who used an unapproved method (fairly unusually) or disapprove an Illuminate who used an approved method (not uncommonly for the politically dissenting). I do not think there is an objective distinction between ‘failed’ mystics and the correct ones. Yes, they all recognise they exist, and then disagree about who they are. Yes, absolutely! And the actions of Great Sister and Jar-Eel later are very likely tied into the same basic fault lines in the Empire. Yes, though it depends quite how much you think the Examiners are corrupted by Imperial politics, how much they are motivated by esoteric mystic arguments, and how much it is personal. I assume the machinations of the Examiners are complex enough to be as inscrutable and baffling for all to be true in whatever combination is needed. I do think one of the reasons things like the Order of Day exists is so that methods of Illumination outside the Lunar systems, and the immediate cultural sphere, have a place to be studied and fitted into the system, even if they are not steeped in Lunar theory. I do think that the Examiners are far from infallible, and senior mystics are found to be secret heretics, with or without a genuine basis, from time to time - certainly in any fun high powered Lunar game. I just think they are seldom wrong (as an institution, at least) about whether someone Is an Illuminate at all.

Babeester Gor worshipppers are symbolically celibate and without love - they may not marry, and if they have children they should be handed to the Earth temple to raise. That they have a rule about what to do if they become pregnant is a bit of a hint that they are symbolically celibate, but often not actually. They are notoriously problem drinkers, and often somewhat emotionally messed up. They make bad choices.

Mystic understanding is mystic understanding - it’s pretty much canon that Illumination is mysticism is all fundamentally the same. The Lunars are pretty clear about that too - they treat Illuminates from non-Lunar traditions (obviously Nysalor, also eg the Order of Day) as valid Illuminates. And the Lunar sources tend to refer to the Sevening Rites, but not whether an individual is Sevened - its method, not outcome. But it’s really just a point of terminology if you agree there are different methods of getting to the same place. Though I don’t think the Lunar traditions are ‘sedate’. I do think the Lunar Illuminates, the Examiners at least, do have the Illuminated ability to detect other Illuminates, and so you can’t just parrot Lunar propoganda, you have to actually be Illuminated - besides, you actually need to be Illuminated to do lots of the cool deep Lunar inner circle magic, like becoming a master of the Life and Death rune at once, and of course that notorious Red Goddess magic. I do agree, though, that the Lunars are diverse in their approaches, and not too all the same - she promises liberation, and how could everyone be liberated, but not allowed to disagree? It’s interesting that most Lunar gods have no spirits of reprisal, too - the goddess doesn’t not try to control who her worshippers are (though the Empire might).

Personally, I think the Seventh Soul is just Lunar/Pelorian terminology for a very common mystic concept - and not only does everyone really have a Seventh Soul (it’s becoming aware and in touch with it that is becoming Illuminated), but it’s actually all the same Seventh Soul - there is literally one, that all share. This can be considered just a metaphor for the unity of all experienced during Illumination, but it’s also as literally true as anything about mysticism is. We are all us. The Sevening Rites are different in method, not goal. They are both a very quick method of attaining Illumination, and a very dangerous one, because they invoke Lunar magic and Madness to force the mind out of its normal limits (and then other Lunar magic to draw it back to something normal).

the image of Kazkurtum is based on an Australian indigenous figure, who is both a storm deity - Namarrgon the lightning man - and a grasshopper (not a cockroach). The connection is more obvious if you can see the grasshopper - they are electric blue - and appear at the same time of year as storm season. https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/discover/culture/stories/ I’ve visited this exact image a few times, it’s very impressive, I love it. I’m actually a bit uncomfortable with the way it’s been incorporated into Glorantha for such a different deity.

What’s Greg Egan got to do with this?

It was the Fate and Luck Rune weeks in each season. If Glorantha had 10 week seasons, it’s years would be 52 weeks long. I dunno, maybe Eurmal convinced everyone they weren’t Power runes and that shortened the year.

Or, of course, it is both of those entities, and the Yellow Bear God in Fronela is also a child of Androgeus. And was later befriended by Jonat. I really like the idea that the Yellow Bear is building the Unfinished Mountain. How this ties into the already considerable world of magical bears in Fronela is another question (we already have black, brown, magical blues, and extinct Polar bears, what’s another colour.) anyone with access to Jonats saga got anything to add?

The Goddess and the Empire have very different concerns. This is a major theme of the Hero Wars story from the Lunar point of view. The Emperor wishes to rule you, the Goddess wishes to liberate you. Ok, the Emperor wishes to rule you physically, the Goddess wishes to liberate you spiritually, and for both its a bit more complicated than that, and so maybe they are reconcilable - but there is always potential for conflict. Jar-Eel (an incarnation of the goddess, many say) is trying to serve both. But she is aware of the conflict, as is Great Sister (and of course the Red Emperor, but maybe because he is the cause of it, or at least so some say) and eventually Jar-Eel and Great Sister begin to do what is necessary to bring the Empire and the Goddess back into harmony. Starting with sacrificing the Emperor. Then the fun really starts. or at least, that’s what it looks like to the un-Illuminated hoi polloi who’ve never even been to the Moon. Probably all sorts of mysterious stuff going on up there. Butnto bring it back on topic - there are no Lunar spirits of retribution* because the goddess does not need them. The Empire, on the other hand, has plenty of spirits, and can use them for retribution if it wants. * ok, some few Lunar cults have spirits of retribution. Not everything is all about the goddess. Interestingly though, all three Lunar cults that I noted as having Spirits of Retribution, they are not Lunar spirits - they are the spirits of defeated enemies.

And there are ‘regional Burning Man’ events, smaller versions of the Nevada one, all over the world (and not always in deserts), usually sharing some of the enthusiasm for giant burning things, and fire art including recreational flame throwers. I’m a Burning Man regional contact, so involved with some of these.

The Seven Mothers has no spirit of reprisal - but that just means that you do not normally get punished simply for leaving the cult, especially for an initiate. But it’s always the case that the priests of the cult can decide to target and punish someone they feel has done something that deserves reprisal. So I don’t think the described situation is a spirit of reprisal exactly, but more likely a priest targeting an apostate that they think is going to turn on the cult, so they wish to make an example of them (so sets a cult spirit on them using Command Cult Spirit), so it is sent by a priest not the deity - this might be an entirely unimportant difference, or a significant one, for your game. It’s actually pretty standard, and I think an important setting detail, that most Lunar Cults, including the Seven Mothers and all the individual Mothers, have no spirits of retribution. The goddess does want people in her cult(s) who do not want to be there. She offers a path to spiritual liberation, but she won’t force you to stay on the path if you don’t want to. And she also doesn’t punish minor infractions - or even try to enforce one single ideal about what a ‘good Lunar’ is. A few do - Etyries, Hon-Eel, Yara Aranis all have spirits of retribution. The latter two are more or less special cults for magical conquest. And Etyries has only fairly subtle ones. Sometimes for some more committed Lunars there may be some permanent magical consequences - like being stuck with cyclical magic permanently. But mostly, the consequences of leaving a Lunar cult are minimal as far as the goddess is concerned - and can be as light or heavy as the situation merits as far as the Empire is concerned, but usually there is no official punishment per se for leaving the cult except losing the benefits of belonging. A soldier might find it hard to leave the cult without being guilty of desertion. A Danfive Xaron cultist who leaves the cult before they are considered reformed is no longer a criminal attempting to reform themselves through the mercy of the goddess, so legally they go back to just being a criminal, and are subject to normal punishments. But there punishments are mortal, not divine. Of course, someone who has left the cult and who knows important secrets, or has left the cult in a way that is considered a betrayal, or even if a particularly nasty Lunar priest wants to punish people who leave the cult to discourage them at a particular point, that is there problem. And I think the Lunar hierarchy are quite happy to punish people who break the rules of the cult but want to stay in it, and will often use cult spirits to do so, though physical punishments, or other magic, such as Lunar sorcery, may also be used. A bit of Madness is sometimes considered spiritually improving by the more hard core followers of the Lunar Way! I think this idea, that the Goddess herself does not force people to stay in the cult, or enforce the rules of the cult (but only her worshippers do) is important because it makes the difference between goddess and Empire clear, it’s one of the reasons the senior Lunars are not unified, and you get things like Dart Competitions in which Lunar nobles murder each other, or Fazzur Wideread and his supporters rebelling against the Empire and allying with Argrath. And it is an interesting contrast to Orlanth - who has a whole range of spirits of reprisal for different offences, including the Impests and Brush Fellows who offer many small punishments for tiny infractions, so Orlanth very much has strong opinions about how to be a good Orlanth and makes them known - or Yelm - who has a whole range of terrifying Furies, who enforce Yelms Will very firmly, including the Woeful Maiden who punishes minor infractions and even apostate lay members, The Blind Fury who attempts to blind all other apostates by rendering them irreversibly blind, and the Hell Fury who drags the worst offenders off to hell. So some cults have many spirits of reprisal, and priests, especially senior priests, can probably use Command Cult Spirit to summon them up for special purposes - though it’s probably in itself breaking the cult rules to do so for inappropriate purposes, there is probably a bit of flexibility, especially if it’s make reprisal more effective. If a chief priest believes a worshipper has broken Orlanths laws particularly heinously, for example, he might be able to convince a bunch of initiates to hand out justice in person, and summon the spirits of reprisal (Flint Slingers or Thunder Fists as appropriate) to attack at the same time, and I think it’s perfectly fine to summon more powerful cult spirits for that purpose.

This demonstrates why you will normally find a Burning Man playing with his flamethrower in a desert where there is not much electricity.

The ‘Opposed Runes no longer Opposed’ rule for Illuminates was also in HeroQuest Glorantha, FWIW. if you are speculating about rules, may as well speculate about what the rules almost certainly will be.

In a practical sense, it’s probably more accurate to say sorcery gives you a way to cast magic, and thus access power without necessarily anthropomorphising it as spirits or gods. But sorcerers differ in their attitudes to the powers they command - many of them do treat those powers as spirits or even gods, though the differ to other forms of magic in how they relate to them. Even conservative Rokari Zzaburi, think spirits are a powerful useful potential resource in magic - you just command and bind them, rather than befriend them or let them occupy parts of your mind. And even Zzabur himself performs magic that uses the power of the gods - he just treats the gods as entities to be bent to his will by the use of his superior intellect.

That’s one possible way to handle it. There are others that give it a higher initial chance, such as simply letting it be automatic with a cost, or making it easy to augment (such as with meditation). It’s also possible that different mystic paths have different rules, or different access to various abilities. I like that the rules aren’t trying to lock it down too quick, just take the first few steps.

Of course he is. He just probably isn’t the most obvious go-to deity for dealing with ghosts, which aren’t undead. Ty Kora Tek probably is that, or talk to a shaman (Daka Fal are the most capable, but not the only shamans that can sort out a ghost). But practically everyone has access to Spirit Block, and ghosts, by their nature, differ in their desires. Often the first person asked to deal with a ghost might be a rune lord or priest of the deceaseds cult. And often the ghost will be dealt with by finding out what is keeping it from the afterlife, and somehow satisfying it. My favourite Gloranthan ghost story by far is the HeroQuest one where you deal with the village of ghosts by undertaking a lawsuit on their behalf against their neighbors.

In case it is not clear, I really like the decision to make it clear that Illumination as we now it is the core (or one variant of the core) experience of mysticism, and though the changes to Illumination since RQ2/3 are relatively minor, and the specific changes relating to the Lunar religion minor too, and I think that it’s a really sound basis for building up mysticism as a playable form of magic that enriches our games and lets us build up new parts and aspects of Glorantha in ways we’ve needed for a long time. I am very excited to be working on ideas for this myself (soon to be in a JC near you).

In RQG, one of the most common abilities is that it lets you suppress your own Passions. That is a very big change for the human side of things. Personally I think doing so should have consequences- but the most likely consequence is simply reducing the Passion. It’s a great potential for bringing Illumination into the roleplaying side of things - both showing the way Illumination changes who the person is, and providing interesting roleplaying choices in play, as to whether to lean into the characters past and individual drives, or into the bigger perspective of the Illuminate. noted that the rules are very vague, and imply rules may differ in detail between forms of Illumination - I personally don’t think such an ability, or most Illumination abilities, would be 100% reliable. For Nysaloran Illuminates, often the Passion in question may be Devotion (deity) - and doing things like joining a hostile deity probably requires overcoming your own Devotion. It’s not just going down the enemy temple disguised as Guy Incognito to pick up some new spells. And Illumination, even with the most extreme of Nysaloran irresponsibility, doesn’t just flip the sociopath switch. It’s also pretty notable that reducing your own drives and Passions seems to be a foundation of (though this vastly oversimplifies it) dragonewt way. And using Dragon Magic may increase them. But notably mysticism connected. The relationship to the Runes is also similar, though more directly connected to magic as well, and I argue it’s probably more restricted. But an Illuminated Seven Mothers priestess who becomes high in both the Life and Death runes does not just get immediate magic benefits (they already have access to both Death and Life runespells, but now might actually have a reasonable chance at casting both), but also has changes at the personal level, becoming capable of being both warm and loving and nurturing, and a callous killer, as needed. Like our beloved Jar-Eel.

I think you have to get the transformation spells from elsewhere, she just provides the deeper magical connection to the Beast nature - but there are probably several sources of that magic in her associated cults, including some known only as rare spirit cults. Of course, the goddess herself has the power. I have toyed with the idea that being able to turn into more than one type of creature is quite likely how mysticism/draconic Illumination manifests in Hsunchen cultures, and this is the origin of the Serpent-Beast brotherhoods that were so important in uniting the Hsunchen in earlier ages, maybe even the same as the legendary and mysterious Kralori dragon Hsunchen. If it’s not mysticism, it’s a different very big secret! But the serpent association makes draconic mysticism make some sense. Combining different transformations into one would be even more mysterious - as there are almost no records of this sort of transformation in Glorantha I can think of right now (but hopefully someone will come up with a counter example).

Chalana Arroy and Issaries are cults that do not forbid sorcery, and are very widespread and include areas that commonly practice sorcery. Mostly, sorcery is used by either in Sartar only implicitly, in the sense that they acknowledge that other cult members in distant lands use it, and that it is an acceptable practice, but knowledge of it is rare. Though in particular, I think they both interact with their Aeolian counterparts readily. Chalana Arroy will use any form of healing knowledge they can find. I think for most of them, sorcery is like using alchemy for healing potions and antidotes etc - a technical knowledge that has uses - but rarer. In the West, where the Arroin sub-cult originates, and it is probably sometimes worshipped as an ancestral goddess (as Xemela) it’s more common - and adopting healing sorcery was natural to the early generators of Xemela, and sharing it with their fellow healers as it joined with other cults (such as Arroin, originally from Fronela) in the first age. In the Second Age it would be shared more widely as the God Learners promoted the cult - and I think the Sisters of Mercy sub-cult, which is quite dominant in the Sartar and Holy Country area, was created around this time and strongly believed in using all the healing tools available, and in particular embraced alchemical knowledge, though sorcery was simply not considered as useful due to the difficulty of learning compared to the powerful rune magic, so was never a widespread practice. So it’s mostly a rare pragmatic choice for central Genertela worshippers, the knowledge originally from Western sources, and it’s limited adoption has taken place within history. And is mostly just another branch of knowledge kept within the deep nunneries of the Sisters of Mercy, along with knowledge of poisons and antidotes and medicine, huge archives of alchemy and botany, healing spirit lord, etc. And while some sorcery will have been translated into more useful languages now, fundamentally the theory is Western - which doesn’t bother the healers that use it, to them the morality of a tool is first and foremost how you use it. Issaries I think similarly was a cult well established in the West in the First Age, and associated with some upper caste lineages that used sorcery (Talars have always had traditional responsibility for dealing with foreigners, including trade), and useful sorcery for trade and travel (mostly from the Kachasti, though the, not yet forbidden and denounced Telendarian school, was around as well) was known. And Issaries is obviously a cult that are no purists about foreign magic (Spell Trading, anyone) and travel widely, and so the purely Rune magic using traders and the Malkioni traders would have known of each other’s early, understood they had some differences but many overlaps in their magic traditions, and accepted them. This tradition would have continued through the second age as the cult was involved with the expansion of the Middle Sea Empire, primarily built on trade (and boy, how awesome would Spell Trading seem to a God Learner?), continued through the expansion of the Trader Princes in the third age. But I don’t think there is any faction within the Issaries cult in Sartar or most of the Holy Country (excluding the Aeolians I guess) that encourage the use or learning of sorcery by Issaries merchants - they just are consciously tolerant and welcoming of it, and clasp the hands of Western merchants and accept them. Lhankor Mhy is different. Knowledge of sorcery is a mythic secret of the god. While the knowledge comes in a sense from the West, it’s from mythic interaction with the West, and it has become part of LMs power and magic. It’s ever bit as much a native power of LM now as Orlanths weapons, though taken from other gods, are his. And LM retains this power to take sorcery and purify it. And this is important, because to LM knowledge is far more than a tool, but a sacred thing that you allow to fill you and change you. The magical process of translating from Western (or whatever) to Stone Scratchings is a magical one. Lhankor Mhy sorcerers mostly stick to ancient, and purified so it is now holy, sorcery. Some learn more, seeking out Western (or EWF, or Kralori, etc) sorcery - and individuals may just treat this as the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake - but ultimately, it’s to make such knowledge and purify it (by translation, and the Alien Combination Machine) and add it to Lhankor Mhy’s storehouse of sacred knowledge. The LM cult is perfectly capable of simultaneously believing that most sorcery is corrupt knowledge, full of subtle errors so that only they can be trusted with it, and that the sorcery of their own cult, even if it came ultimately from the same source, is sacred and holy.