Can Spirit Cults be contacted in more than one location ?

[mfbrandi]

3 hours ago, g33k said:

This shaman strikes me as being very Eurmali, tbh...

Tricksterish, certainly, but how many raven, fox, coyote, … and spider spirits and/or shamans are there out there? And the trickster shaman ought to be a familiar figure to Gloranthaphiles.

Presumably, Gloranthan spirit cultism/shamanism is a pretty capacious concept and extends beyond stereotypes of Siberians.

Where do we put the ‘faith healers’ who will produce a tumour/chicken liver from your arm with a penknife? Where do we put all the Aleister Crowleys who may pretend to be devotees of Uleria or Wakboth (or some such big-deal deity) but are strictly small-potatoes show people with a deadpan delivery and poetry as bad as Orlanth’s? Give them a strong connection to and a way to leverage the power of equally minor-league spirits? Maybe. Sometimes.

The trouble with Eurmal as such is that he is a giant gob on a matching knob always about to tip over into threatening to destroy the world. One wouldn’t want the omnipotent phallic psychopath to be the only trickster template.

[hipsterinspace]

11 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

The idea is not to make all spirit cults the same or to fit known named spirits into a Procrustean bed of monocult, but to have a shaman who is a touring Colonel Tom with no Elvis, just a spangly jumpsuit to lend to the local no-hoper. Equally, it could be done with franchises and no touring at all. The Gopnik thing just struck me as one way to have seemingly the same low-powered entity popping up everywhere: “If this thing is everywhere, why isn’t it of minor deity power?” “Because it is an illusion: it is a Mechanical Turk.”

I don’t think this particularly works for most spirits. It might be something you’re able to get away with for cult spirits, but it seems like many spirits do a lot to put the petty in petty god: every spirit seems to have their own rivalries, likes, dislikes, and demands which can differ significantly from spirit to spirit or change over time based on relationships with humans. The spirit ecology that gives rise to these preferences also seems to change as much as the physical ecology over time and distance, and if you treat them interchangeably I’d imagine they’re liable to get upset that they are being venerated incorrectly. Think of it this way, no matter what extravagance someone might be willing to give you as a gift, it would probably be far less attractive if they’re calling you the wrong name and picked it out based on someone else’s preferences.

Edited April 4, 2023 by hipsterinspace