Ali the Helering

I am afraid that I don't feel that this takes my comment seriously, and Mary-Sueism it certainly isn't. My point is simply that you aren't speaking for everyone when you assert that 'that isn't the sort of game you want to play'. Every player is different, and I can honestly say that having played a Feller-of-the-Crimson Bat, the experience was unsatisfying. It relied on luck rather than ability. Some of us want certain things to remain a challenge beyond human capability. Now if my character had been a demi-god rather than a hero, that would have been a different matter…..

Joerg said That is entirely a matter of opinion and personal experience, I am afraid. Playing Amber DRPG it was simply and implicitly the case that 'You will never catch up' in the opponents particular area of speciality, IF (and only if) they were the best in all the multiverse of the Amber universe. Part of the fun was in the frustration. (Not an innuendo!)

As I said, I have been VERY ill (mildly dead for 20 minutes) and my memory sometimes needs jogging. I also created lots of 'Orlanthi All' variants for the older questionnaire, and some based around the old ILH books. The more varied the world, the better! What I am unsatisfied with is the way of indicating the preferred deities from the many pantheons available. When you consider the non-Plentonian, Plentonian, Draconic, Spolite/Umbarite, Old Lights, purely Raibanthi, purely Yuthuppan, purely Alkothi, Nysalorian, Lodrilli, Lunar, etc etc etc inputs, it is a tad complex! However, if you would be interested I shall find a way to make it available, with a little help from my technical advisor. 🤪

I once created a character for Ringworld (much missed) who was rejected by the ref on the grounds that he was TOO realistic and therefore would not survive the opening scenes. I would rather have a character die than have them be purposely unrealistic.

I have created several for the different peoples of Pent on my blog 'A land fit for heroes and their horses', several for the Uz (by region) although not yet typed up, and am working on ones for a forthcoming blog concerning Chern Durel, much delayed by illness and work. I have created versions for Dara Happa and the Lunar Heartlands, but am far from satisfied with them!

This sounds dangerously close to 'We are all us' my friend! Every storm is a god, and each may be perceived in line with the prejudices of the observer. Vinga is Orlanth for those who do not see her unique features. Some people probably think that Desemborth is Finovan is Helamakt is Vadrus. Doesn't make 'em right😁

The hazard of having Rev in front of my name, I am afraid 😇

Welcome to the wonderful world of religion. Seriously, though, I think it is an uncomfortably close analogy!

I am preparing a campaign in Doblian, by player request. Sources are highly varied in period, origin and depth and leave immense opportunities for YGWV. When in doubt head for the less documented spaces. 🤪🤓

In the Domesday Book a lot of woods are defined by the number of pigs they could support.

Medieval Swiss?

As a Campbellian trained anthropologist his early reliance on the monomyth is both inevitable and obvious. I found his later appreciation that variation matters at least as much as commonality very helpful, and am disinclined to revert to the monomyth structure. MGDV. For me the question is not whether the myth-structure and religion are over complicated; it is whether they are over-complicated enough!

I have to profoundly disagree on many levels. Follow FS (?) on Low Pelorian religion, since Greg favoured it himself. Treat the Monomyth as the God Learnerist perversion that it is. Herodotus studying the Enuma? Hardly remote history, given the sources he would have available, and hardly irrelevant given how strongly the ideas within it influenced the countries he regarded as deadly threats. There is no need to know Gloranthan lore to play any knowledge priest (or similar), just a willingness to discover a new set of truths

Try playing in a game run by Tindalos. Why be less than esoteric?

One of the delights of the Entekosiad for me is the stylistic difference from FS and GRoY. Valare is a mystic who lacks the focus and the tools required to be a systematic theologian or reconstructive historian. Instead she has the inclusive genius of the experiential quester. . I don't think it is a mess, but rather that it is one of Greg's greatest works. However, this does mean that the identities and parallels are both difficult and bounded by the time and context of the 'origin' of the story. Happy hunting 😇

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6 Seemed moderately interesting🤓

Epic of Gilgamesh tablet 11 I sacrificed a lamb The gods gathered around the altar like flies This has always struck me as giving an interesting insight as to the Sumerian view of divinity🤢

I spent some time with a proud and tribal people amongst whom their qualified doctor would send the sick to a local Methodist minister for exorcism. The proud and tribal people? Highly educated and high earning suburban English. These relationships and linked practices are far more common and widespread than we might at first think

What you sacrifice doesn't matter half as much as why you sacrifice it. Evans-Pritchard on Nuer Religion notes how the Nuer will sacrifice a cucumber rather than the extravagant outlay of a cow!

It is a matter of the context - theistic or animistic. The pole star tengri of the Eurasian steppe is spirit rather than god, in so far as the division has any meaning. I would see Buserian as a vibrant spirit of the steppe adopted as a god by the settled wimps of civilised Dara Happa. No personal prejudice involved 😇

Rather than being a polestar God, particularly given a Pentan context, I would propose the tent pole being a shamanic axis mundi, down which celestial spiritual truth is drawn.

I am afraid that prices are dependent on economic worth, supply, demand and culture. If an equation is easy, then it is too easy! 🤓

GodLearner🎸

Hate to be a pain, but Bob and the Band were on the Isle of Wight when many others were at Woodstock.

The Gregging and retconning of Elmal and Yelmalio