Ali the Helering

Roman gladiatorial combat is generally accepted as having evolved out of funerary games, with two slaves (or more?) fighting to the death. So a blend of ancestral and chthonic worship.

Yes, well....

Blood Sun, anyone?

I think we can be in danger of bringing our own attitudes to bare here. This is not a dark ritual, it is the righteous appeasing of the Earth, and similarly to be understood for the other deities. If you don't do this your crops will fail, chasms will open up across your land, Maran might just spit her flaming phlegm up from them and go full Geldingadalir on you. The tremors of her fury will knock down buildings and undermine the tula's defences. This is a very, very important ritual accompanied by much booze and deep breathing.

Gimme that Old Time Religion.... but do remember that the reformers were burnt at the stake long before they got their happy fun time with the matches

A GM I used to know said he used a table on which he would roll a d20 to determine a dragonewt's reaction to any given stimulus, to ensure that it was unpredictable and irrational. He felt that his underlying attitudes would bias it otherwise. I never saw the table, so it is always possible he was unpredictable and irrational himself....

Back in the late '80s I ran a Dykene-based campaign where one player was determined to play an atheist. We had long, l-o-n-g, discussions as to the basis for his access to any form of magic. In the end he went for a personal belief in Arachne Solara as a personification of Glorantha and the Cosmos and confined himself to Battle Magic, as Spirit Magic was then called. I remain unconvinced, but he seemed happy enough, so I let it ride. He moved to Canada. Oh my. Bill....? 🤪

Consider, if you will, RW Theravada Buddhism. It acknowledges that the gods exist, but it does not deem them worthy of worship since they too are trapped on the Wheel of Rebirth.

I failed. For some reason my lecturer thinks me one of his star pupils, whenever we meet!

They all live in the Vatican. I assume you misspelt pope culture....

אָמַר נָבָל בְּלִבּוֹ, אֵין אֱלֹהִים Which uses the term 'elohim', which is, in fact, grammatically plural. It has been read for millennia as a name for the deity otherwise known as 'El or YHWH, hence the capitalisation.

Our modern dictionary definitions don't match with RW ancient definitions. Christians, for example, were classed as atheists by the Romans, since they didn't recognise the divinity of the gods of Rome. The Bible contains evidence of widespread atheism - Psalm 14 opens with Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God" (NRSV). I don't think they would raise the topic were it not a living issue.

Damnit! Now I can't get rid of the image of a motorcycle being dubiously incorporated into the Satyricon... Either way, I think it would hurt.😣

The product, or the gaming community?

Understood, but it would also (IMG anyway) mean that if they were taken off the tula the clan would be significantly weakened, & therefore the Ring would be unlikely to permit it. I doubt that the plough would be seen as personal property, either.

That is exactly how I imagine spirits factoring into the Community Resource factors, be they harvest, healing or warfare.

I meant only the one power. Simply giving suggestions for a choice!

Yup, that's the general idea, although it needn't be an Allied Spirit, 'just' a Cult Spirit. Something to inspire the undecided to join the cult, perhaps, when they see the 'Speed the Plough' power giving our Barntari the afternoon off after he deals with the job before lunch. Perhaps a Landscape Spirit to empower the ploughing at a particular site, or one to evict any stones in the plough's path, to continuously sharpen the blade etc etc etc .

Indeed, but I wasn't meaning as a spell. Rather the cult spirit could inhabit the plough itself on a permanent basis, rather than being cast occasionally. It might have powers not covered by the rune magic.

My experience of Traveller was formed by the group with whom I played - a group of Physicists and Astrophysicists half of whom were associated with the military or the defence industries. It was brutal, and espionage/combat heavy. After a while, you get a bit tired of it all.😬 Oh yeah - massively heavy on the requirement to solve abstruse physics problems. I was the only non-physicist.

Precisely. Anyone who espouses a monomyth. Greg did, because Joseph Campbell did. Unlike Campbell, he realised it was ridiculously reductionist, and in later years embraced a more post-modern approach as exemplified in Hero Wars.

Imperial Lunar Handbook 2. A vastly under-rated (if frequently over-baroque) and no longer canon HeroQuest book.

It strikes me that frequently grain was stored in subterranean silos, so I think we might be looking for Asrelia, at least in a Heortling context, once it has been harvested. ILH2 had some very nifty crop anti-pest magics IIRC

As you say, Phil. Barntar would have great use for a plough spirit and for many earth, and possibly water, spirits.

Almost, my friend, almost. There are The Big Country and Cowboys versus Aliens, for very different reasons, but almost....