Away from home during Sacred Time?

[Jolt]

Let's say you have some Sartar rebels striking into Tarsh to disrupt Lunar operations but the rebels get chased into the hills.  Sacred time comes around.  Do the Lunars keep pursuing the rebels?  Are there rites the rebels can do while on the run?

[Joerg]

Outlaw bands are pretty much in the same situation.

In this situation, you might turn to the Darkness Survival myths of Heort - while not actively supporting the renewal of the world, you still protect the bits of the world you inhabit, and the folk within these bits. And you can do these while on the run - being chased might even be beneficial to your rites.

Heort himself was a shaman, and what he did required no organized temples or massive group efforts.

Having said this, the best introduction to this era is in the Stafford Library Book of Heortling Mythology. There are no ready-to-play sources for this kind of rites at all, whether clan activities during Sacred Time nor alternative rites to perform.

[M Helsdon]

2 hours ago, Jolt said:

Let's say you have some Sartar rebels striking into Tarsh to disrupt Lunar operations but the rebels get chased into the hills.  Sacred time comes around.  

Given its location in the calendar, military activity (by soldiers or outlaws) is going to be unlikely (except in exceptional circumstances), as it lies between Storm Season (wet, cold, icy, travel difficult) and Sea Season (weather improving, time to get ready for war). Anyone engaging in warfare in Storm Season is risking heavy loses from the weather.

[Brian McReynolds]

4 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Given its location in the calendar, military activity (by soldiers or outlaws) is going to be unlikely (except in exceptional circumstances), as it lies between Storm Season (wet, cold, icy, travel difficult) and Sea Season (weather improving, time to get ready for war). Anyone engaging in warfare in Storm Season is risking heavy loses from the weather.

Not to mention going up against those pesky Orlanth worshippers when their Air/Storm magic is even more empowered than normal.

[jajagappa]

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

In this situation, you might turn to the Darkness Survival myths of Heort

This makes sense.  You and your small band are on your own.  You are in the Great Darkness.  You are beyond the support of kin or clan.  It's very likely that everyone in the band must face chaos at I Fought We Won.  If successful or lucky, you find an ally and join the Unity Battle.

There are likely other Survivor stories that follow similar paths.  Some might Sleep, but there might not be a guarantee to reawaken.  There were some Esrolians who survived on their own in Nochet such as in the Black Maw, and others who made the journey to the Only Old One (though with him gone, that path might be lost).

 

[Joerg]

Storm Season is - temperatures permitting - a magically rewarding time for raiding activities. As long as you aren't freezing to death, storms and rains are your allies. Given the hard to maneuver terrain, you would probably be better advised to go for portable plunder rather than cattle.

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

This makes sense. 

I should hope so, yes...

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

You and your small band are on your own.  You are in the Great Darkness.  You are beyond the support of kin or clan.  It's very likely that everyone in the band must face chaos at I Fought We Won.  If successful or lucky, you find an ally and join the Unity Battle.

This still is only a weaker rite, and while it may possibly be essential that such rites are carried out while the majority of the Gloranthans actively supports the renewal of the world, the groups performing these fringe rites may very well be less integrated in the magic of the new year.

Years have a different meaning in Glorantha. Each Sacred Time the world is re-created. Without the uncoordinated yet joint efforts of the inhabitants of the world, it might fragment again, the strands of the web holding together the shards might weaken, or the shards caught within might drift free.

Portions of the world might become Hidden Lands when and where Sacred Times rites go foul, or aren't performed at all.

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

There are likely other Survivor stories that follow similar paths.  Some might Sleep, but there might not be a guarantee to reawaken.  There were some Esrolians who survived on their own in Nochet such as in the Black Maw, and others who made the journey to the Only Old One (though with him gone, that path might be lost).

The Heortling tribes all had their own centers of survival, and their own tricks and dark secrets how they made it through the Greater Darkness. The only survival stories that we know from western Kethaela are the Solung cave for the Caladralander followers of Veskarthan, the Pig Hollow of the Harandings, the Blackmaw Underworld strategy at Nochet, and the Nochet exodus into the Obsidian Palace. The Necropolis was active during the Greater Darkness, and had to be put to rest by the Strong Man in the Silver Age. Ezel probably was sleeping an enchanted sleep, possibly disturbed by Nontraya, but left alone for some reason or other. The Ditali had their own place of survival, too, but weren't part of the network built by the Silver Age Theyalans.

We have basically no idea how Esrolia looked before the Greater Darkness, except for Nochet, Ezel and the Necropolis, and we lack the origin story for the Necropolis (which logically would have to be placed in the Storm Age in its current function, since Death as per the current situation was unknown before, and which may have been a more harmless entryway to the Deeper Earth before). I wonder whether the Necropolis played a role similar to Alkoth, and how its allegiance was towards Nontraya.

Sleepers awakened or frozen folk successfully defrosted after the Dawn might be a way to enter additional cultural groups at least without going against published canon. Caves full of sleepers all over Esrolia definitely is an option, and re-discovering these may have seen traumatic failures where monsters found such places and fed on the sleepers. The massive population growth in Esrolia doesn't have to rely on more folk surviving there, though - 1700 years in one of the most productive lands anywhere on Gloranthan would have taken care of that.

[Jeff]

On 7/10/2017 at 10:10 AM, Jolt said:

Let's say you have some Sartar rebels striking into Tarsh to disrupt Lunar operations but the rebels get chased into the hills.  Sacred time comes around.  Do the Lunars keep pursuing the rebels?  Are there rites the rebels can do while on the run?

We all have a duty to preserve the cosmos through the Sacred Time ceremonies. Failure to participate in these rites (in whatever local form they take) weakens the cosmos. This is true not just for Lightbringer Theyalans, but for Dara Happans, Lunars, and even Westerners. Given that most political or military leaders in Glorantha are also religious leaders, the religious imperative is likely to be given the greatest of weight - and can even result in two enemies performing the rites in conjunction - even cooperation - with each other.

[Byll]

48 minutes ago, Jeff said:

We all have a duty to preserve the cosmos through the Sacred Time ceremonies. Failure to participate in these rites (in whatever local form they take) weakens the cosmos. This is true not just for Lightbringer Theyalans, but for Dara Happans, Lunars, and even Westerners. Given that most political or military leaders in Glorantha are also religious leaders, the religious imperative is likely to be given the greatest of weight - and can even result in two enemies performing the rites in conjunction - even cooperation - with each other.

Why not, when we could have a 1914 Christmas truce?