A spoiler for Babs runelord?

[DucksMustDie]

I'm trying to make an npc Babs runelord, and could use a spoiler since the new cults books are who knows how far away from being published.

I'm aware that in Hero Wars runelord of Babs is a sort of bride of the Goddess herself and therefore must remain celibate (or is it virgin, no less?). Is this still to be the case? In Wyrms Footnotes 9 her description says she's had husbands and other lovers, so celibacy would seem odd.

Could someone who has either been lucky enough to obtain a preview version from the cults books or otherwise has secret knowledge help me a bit? A whole description of Babs runelord would be even better. Thanks 🙂

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, DucksMustDie said:

I'm aware that in Hero Wars runelord of Babs is a sort of bride of the Goddess herself and therefore must remain celibate (or is it virgin, no less?). Is this still to be the case?

Ignore, it's not in RQG or CoG 

1 hour ago, DucksMustDie said:

Could someone who has either been lucky enough to obtain a preview version from the cults books or otherwise has secret knowledge help me a bit? A whole description of Babs runelord would be even better. Thanks 🙂

Just use the RQG description. The only additions are

Initiates: may not marry and must give any offspring to their local Earth Temple.

RLs: They get a suit of Copper armour & axe, lists the enchantments (from RBM - all of them including, enchant copper & iron) and increases the number of associated cults. There's no celibacy.

[JDM]

Axe Maidens (Rune Lords) must obey Earth Priestesses and defend them at all costs.

They can generally accept surrender and take prisoners, but in war or emergency they are required to slay all enemies. 

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

9 hours ago, JDM said:

Axe Maidens (Rune Lords) must obey Earth Priestesses and defend them at all costs.

They can generally accept surrender and take prisoners, but in war or emergency they are required to slay all enemies. 

Where does this come from? 

Please. 

[Shiningbrow]

6 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Where does this come from? 

Please. 

The heart.... 😛

[David Scott]

8 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Where does this come from? 

Please. 

It's in the current CoG draft

 

[JDM]

Yes, as David has said

[davecake]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:39 PM, DucksMustDie said:

I'm aware that in Hero Wars runelord of Babs is a sort of bride of the Goddess herself and therefore must remain celibate (or is it virgin, no less?).

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. 

[Kloster]

3 minutes ago, davecake said:

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. 

The way I understand it, the simple fact they have this rule means they don't have a rule about celibacy.

[dumuzid]

Babs mated with the likes of Eurmal in the Darkness

[JRE]

A good use for Remove (Penis). The problem will be getting it back. 

[Ludo Bagman]

1 hour ago, JRE said:

A good use for Remove (Penis). The problem will be getting it back. 

Become Other Sex, to avoid the mutilation, or to join the Earth cults.

2 hours ago, dumuzid said:

Babs mated with the likes of Eurmal in the Darkness

Eurmal also made her drunk when he changed blood to beer as she was slaughtering healers.

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

1 hour ago, Ludo Bagman said:

Become Other Sex, to avoid the mutilation, or to join the Earth cults.

Eurmal also made her drunk when he changed blood to beer as she was slaughtering healers.

Nooo! She is in the Orlanth-Ernalda niceness clique. Therefore cannot do bad things. 

When it says slaughtered the people in the valley of the Healers, it means got them slaughtered, which is an English euphemism for 'got them very drunk.'

She is just very generous with her cash. Any rumours of her being a barbaric monster who should be kept celibate to stop her spawning more like her are wrong and bad and the Gods responsible for spreading such things will be put on the naughty step! 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Orlanthatemyhamster

[Eff]

26 minutes ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Any rumours of her being a barbaric monster who should be kept celibate to stop her spawning more like her are wrong and bad and the Gods responsible for spreading such things will be put on the naughty step! 

It seems a bit strange to suggest Babeester Gor's celibacy is involuntarily imposed on her from the outside by other gods because it would be an abomination if she had children. 

[Qizilbashwoman]

Babs can have children, but her family is monsters and adoptees. Her role is like that of a fearsome aunt or a grandmother: she protects. It's not about her womb children. She adopts and she protects the family. The thunder beasts are her children, but they aren't literally born from her.

[DucksMustDie]

Yep, she's really a nice girl who just happens to like playing with blood and body parts ❤️ 

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

12 hours ago, Eff said:

It seems a bit strange to suggest Babeester Gor's celibacy is involuntarily imposed on her from the outside by other gods because it would be an abomination if she had children. 

A/ It would be. 

B/ Ernalda is the 'head' of the pantheon, sort of, ish so that is a possibility. 

Having kids tag along when you wander around chopping peoples' willie's off cause they looked at you funny is not the best idea. 

D/ I wasn't being very serious. 🙂

But yeah, why no kids? 

Isn't playing something with some restrictions a bit more interesting? 

If people want to play mother with an axe, Ernalda really is a good fit. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Orlanthatemyhamster

[JRE]

I like that the Earth cults take the classical feminine triad (Maiden, Mother, Crone) and separate them in life and death deities. So Babeester Gor is the Death Maiden, which I think is why she is at times called a maiden, and the confusion about her virginal nature. 

I would take maiden as not having given birth, rather than the Christian patriarchy obsession with virginity. The death association makes BG, in my opinion, barren, as Maran Gor is barren too, though she had children. I actually expect BG worshippers to have active sex lives, just not what your typical male orlanthi would appreciate.

A worshipper getting pregnant is a sign that her death rune affinity is not high enough, and I would expect it is possible only in special circumstances for rune level characters, using strong life magic.

As the child cannot be the worshipper's, it becomes the Temple's. I suppose there are some worshippers that change from BG to Ernalda, and keep their children, embracing life. It would make a nice back history and a twist for an axe wielding Ernaldan priestess, though I would expect the death magic cannot be used unless she reverts to Maran Gor, or later to Ty Kora Tek. 

[Kloster]

23 minutes ago, JRE said:

I actually expect BG worshippers to have active sex lives, just not what your typical male orlanthi would appreciate.

Completely agree here.

24 minutes ago, JRE said:

I suppose there are some worshippers that change from BG to Ernalda, and keep their children, embracing life. It would make a nice back history and a twist for an axe wielding Ernaldan priestess,

It can be fun. At the very least, interesting.

25 minutes ago, JRE said:

though I would expect the death magic cannot be used unless she reverts to Maran Gor, or later to Ty Kora Tek. 

I don't think so, but as the runic affinities are very different, except if illuminated, the stars have to be right (or the dice loaded).

[Qizilbashwoman]

54 minutes ago, JRE said:

A worshipper getting pregnant is a sign that her death rune affinity is not high enough, and I would expect it is possible only in special circumstances for rune level characters, using strong life magic.

I don't think the Death rune works that way. You can be a worshiper of a Death rune deity and bear offspring. But you can't stay in your role and be a parent. A Humakti personifies death and they can establish relationships with other people, but they lose their family and clan to be a Humakti. I don't think barrenness is what it's about, but about refusing the role: you surrender the child at birth because death sets you apart from the living.

Of course, Gorites can always use herbs to prevent pregnancy in the first place if that is a risk for the kind of sex they are having. This is always an option.

[JRE]

It is a matter of interpretation, but I see the high runic affinities with actual effects on the character's life. Of course there are ways to overcome it, and a high enough life can overcome death. But that goes really into legendary territory. That is why events such as Sartar's household of Death horrified normal orlanthi, because devoting yourself to death so completely meant the end of Sartar's line, except for tenuous distant relatives, as it actually happened.

So IMG a Humakti that wants to raise a family really needs to lower the death rune affinity / increase life rune. You cannot have your cake and eat it. Unless you are an illuminate and able to sustain high runic affinities to both life and death, or course. 

Mechanistically, I would say a 90% Death affinity means you are five times less likely to be fertile than an average person. But once you get into the 100% you are a walking embodyment of death, and it is bound to change things. 0% Life. To me that says it all. 

It may be I am old fashioned from the time the Life rune was called Fertility, but I think it has to be reinforced that Babeester Gor cultists are not women warriors with cool magic. They are the tool of the Earth to punish those that hurt them, and who have sacrificed everything they were (including their life giving ability) for the power to kill, maim and mutilate, and survive long enough to do it again and again. Glorantha's magic is not just a series of spells, but other effects that show the magic inherent in the setting. A BG cultist cannot keep a pet, or have a plant survive only with her care.  Small animals appear dead around her, grass whithers if she sleeps on it, and I would go as far as saying that cheese or beer cannot be made when a rune lord is in the house.

Edited February 11, 2022 by JRE
Adding the last paragraph, instead of writing an extra post.

[DucksMustDie]

54 minutes ago, JRE said:

But once you get into the 100%

Isn't 99% max ? 😮

[Kloster]

Yes. For pair, min 1% and max 99% (except, it seems, if illuminated).

[French Desperate WindChild]

2 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

I don't think the Death rune works that way. You can be a worshiper of a Death rune deity and bear offspring.

I think there are two things :

- what you are, for this discussion, what are your runes scores

- what is your god(dess)'s runes

you may be a humakti, a bab'sister or worshipper of any death cult, without a high score in Death Rune. Of course not a full life defender, but just a "normal" person (50/50)

for example I can imagine some worshippers of babs who join the cult for any reason but take the role of scout, tracker, investigator, watchwoman, or judge but not to kill kill kill.

Probably a minority, but what about a woman who seek justice from some oath breaker ? justice, not just violence. What about a woman who wants to serve the earth temple but for any reason cannot join ernalda (some oath/curse from an ancestor, because she failed as ernaldan, etc ...) ? What about a woman who cannot accept to manage the house, wants adventure, but is a earth woman, not a vingan ?

 

so for me, a Bab's with 90% in death rune would probably never give birth, not because Bab's, but because her body is rune,

and a Bab's with 50% in death rune may give birth (except if her goddess, or herself, choose to prevent it with herbs, magic, and others practices ..)

[JRE]

Yes, that is what I meant. When I say Babeester Gor is barren, that does not mean that her worshippers are, but the prototypical BG devotee (Death 90+) will have problems, and probably little interest in bearing a child.

But it is not set in stone, and a great story could come from that, such as an Axe Maiden that is the last of her clan, so she wants to bear children out of clan loyalty, but without weakening her link with BG. One way is to search for powerful Uleria magics, the right partner, and finding someone to raise up the kid(s). Another way is getting drunk, banging an Eurmali, trust that disorder brings the unexpected, and unloading the end result on your Ernaldan sisters that already have broods of their own.

Considering that 96+ is a failure and 01-05 a success, I consider all those extremes as 100. Still in the RQ: G conversion process.