Jeff

Yes. And this is entirely deliberate on the part of the rules. You certainly can play an adventuring sorcerer - but you are going to be swimming upriver so to speak, especially in Dragon Pass or the Holy Country. For many players, that's just fun roleplaying opportunities.

In RuneQuest, spirit magic is not called "common magic". It is described as such: "Spirit magic is the most basic and common magic found in Glorantha. It concerns communication with the spirits that reside in the natural energy currents of the world and is practiced in one form or another by nearly every Gloranthan culture and religion." Spirit magic is used by most Malkioni, but (as I fear I have said for the nth time) specialists in sorcery tend to eschew spirit magic as it is limiting for those who try to manipulate and command the energy currents of the world through their own force of intellect. Jeff

As I have said before, sorcery is intellectually incompatible with spirit magic. You can still use spirit magic, but using your CHA to control spirits limits your INT's ability to manipulate the thaumaturgical equations behind large sorcery skills. That's my point - it reflects the setting as understood by the people who write the setting. For your information gathering LM player characters, sorcery is WAAAAAAY more useful than spirit magic. But also, such characters rarely have a need for really large sorcerous manipulation, so if you really feel you need your own Heal 2 spell, that's not that much of a harm.

Of course not. The historical record is full of sorcerers contemplating the skies, looting Kralorelan celestialogical records, and identifying Ehilm/Idovanus with Keter/the Supreme Light of Consciousness/Pleroma/whatever. Angels of Light communicating secrets with wizards, or wizards levitating their intellect into the Aetherial realm. Only the silliest of wizards would take such cosmic secrets and sully them into a petty fireball. Fireberg yes, because that is awesome. Fireball? That is the sort of petty thing I'd expect to see from some half-barbarian Ralian. Or a fully barbaric Fonritian.

As an aside, the Fire Rune means Fire/Sky, - which includes celestial studies, purity, and intellect. It makes absolute sense to me that sorcerers would seek to attune their mind to the aetherial heights and let their intellect soar into the pure sky. The Sky is the element of thought after all. Any wizard who wishes to expand their mind should study the Sky.

The God Learners weren't running around with super-sorcerers blasting their foes in hand-to-hand combat. Their claim to fame was understanding how Gloranthan mythology fits together and taking advantage of that road map to make new and innovative connections in the Gods World.

Of course there is a basis for the rule. One's limit for spirit magic is based on one's CHA; however, possession of spirit magic (a fundamentally irrational form of magic) impedes one's ability to reduce the world to essential abstractions which are then logical manipulated. Thus each point of spirit magic serves to reduce the maximum possible manipulation of sorcery. Yes, it does put a single sorcerer-adventurer at a comparative disadvantage on adventures in Dragon Pass - especially if they are trying to compete with in the same eco-system as their Rune Magic+Spirit Magic using colleagues. But then again, the sorcerers in Dragon Pass are mainly Lhankor Mhy scholars - they are using sorcery for information gathering purposes, like Geomancy or Reveal Rune (which are definitely cooler than Detect Whatever spirit magic spells). Your complaint seems to be that being a sorcerer in an all Malkioni adventuring party isn't that much fun. Since we haven't published any material for running RQ in the West, there really isn't much of a basis for that complaint. Keep in mind, even among the Rokari, horali orders use spirit magic and many even use Rune magic. But that aside, any wizard that runs around in a small party of adventurers trying to fight "critters" unaccompanied by a small army of expendable horali gets what he deserves.

Yes. This is it in a nutshell.

As your skill goes up, your chance of casting the spell - especially in crisis situations - goes up. However, your raw ability to rationally manipulate magic is based on your INT, nor your skill in any specific spell. Thus with enough time and resources, even a sorcerer who only recently learned a dangerous spell from a translated page of the forbidden Orange Book can do terrible things. If you are a *real* sorcerer, residing in an ivory tower and spending your days meditating on the cosmic laws of the universe and reading texts, why on earth are you concerned about access to quick healing? If you are a wandering philosopher of Lhankor Mhy, why on earth are you concerned about having a huge Free INT for your Geomancy spells? Get a few spirit magic spells - sure they reduce your ability to manipulate large spells, but not so much that it is really going to reduce your information-gathering magic.

Spirit magic is intellectually incompatible with the rigorous logic of sorcery. If you want to rock at being a sorcerer, don't rely on petty little spirit charms.

Given that the descriptions in CHDP are likely third-hand at best, I find that to be one of the less misleading descriptions in an intentionally unreliable text!

Sure it does. Each body is its "arm". If you look at Cwim from a distance, it looks like a three limbed thing.

Yep! But no wonder the White Bull got defeated there - Cwim is terrifying!

I am writing them now.

Greg always had misgivings about publishing Arcane Lore - which I shared with him. It is a collection of notes and first drafts, many presented out of context and without other writings that would greater understanding.

I've gotten a few questions about the details of Argrath Whitebull defeat by the Lunar College of Magic in 1625. Here they are: Argrath Whitebull and his Praxian horde march on the New Lunar Temple. While camped near Hender’s Ruins, the Lunar College of Magic summoned the Chaos Terror Cwim and set it upon the White Bull’s army, while hurling magic from a great distance. The nomads were slaughtered; the survivors retreated to Pavis, where Argrath began to assemble a new army.

Fire/Sky spells include the study of the sky, celestial affairs, etc. It is the elemental realm of pure intellect according to many schools of thought. I see nothing wrong with encouraging LM sorcerers and philosophers to study the Runic Technique of the Light of Knowledge.

It is exactly the sort of spell that *might* be found in a collection of spells deep in a library. It is exactly the sort of spell that gives sorcerers a very bad reputation. Tap itself isn't Chaotic. But an asphyxiation spell or other soul to energy spell is hardly going to make you well-liked in the hills of Sartar. You'll probably need to live in some kind of defensive tower and surround yourself with mercenaries and servants who don't care what you are doing as long as they are paid. Jeff

As adventurers heroquest, they gain abilities that enable them to do things like shrug off damage and lesser spells, increase their hit points, do more damage, project their soul at distance, return from death, and so on. The hero characters I've made so far actually have far lower chances to hit than say characters out of Rune Masters, but can tear through them ("hey check out my augmented Lightning that does 2D6 per Rune Point, my effectively permanent Shield 6 spell, or my heroically augmented CON stat!"). They've gained their powers not through Super Skills, but as a result of questing in the Hero Plane.

Genertela has far fewer Vadeli than Pamaltela.

This is correct. Sorcery allows someone who does not have a strong innate connection with a Rune to be able to cast sorcerous magic. After all, spirit magic is something you have, rune magic is something you are, and sorcery is something you know.

Very Periclean of them, wouldn't you say?

The "Owner of the Runes" is part of the God Learner understanding of Gloranthan mythology, although it is based on the Orange Book of Zzabur. Many sorcerous texts used these gods in the similar way as RW alchemical, astrological, and hermetic texts used Greco-Roman and other deities as symbols and concepts. The approach is generally accepted and often used by Lhankor Mhy scholars as well.

Shargash is a son of Yelm. Various goddesses are claimed as his mother. The heirs to the Artmali claim she was the goddess of the Night, was conceived in the Underworld with his sister the Blue Moon goddess. Most Pelorians instead claim that Dendara is his mother, although the Alkothi agree with the Artmali. All agree that Shargash is the war god of the celestial realm.

That is a VERY minor association for Ernalda. She's the goddess of Life, Sex, Earth, and Women, long before stuff like weaving. Weavers worship her, just as farmers and herders worship Orlanth.