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what is the mythic basis for addiction?


Garry

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9 hours ago, Jon Hunter said:

OK there is an extreme lack of understanding on the nature addictions , the triggers and cycles of addiction being displayed with the thread.

So, please enlighten us. Then we can convert into Gloranthan terms.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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Maybe my response was too hard ....

and a simple answer isn't easy to do as addictions have many causes , many triggers and many cyclic effects.

The point i was trying to make is that for many people much of the time. there is a profound psychological element within addiction.

To see it as a case that regard addictive substances and constitutional resistance reduces the nuances of the issues significantly, and possibly plays into the misconceptions about addiction.

Addictions can be routed in the chemical, stem from attachment issues or be routed in trauma.  My addictive behaviours are attachment based and triggered, so substance based systems don't reflect my experiences of addiction at all.

Edited by Jon Hunter
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20 hours ago, Jon Hunter said:

To see it as a case that regard addictive substances and constitutional resistance reduces the nuances of the issues significantly, and possibly plays into the misconceptions about addiction.

Addictions can be routed in the chemical, stem from attachment issues or be routed in trauma.  My addictive behaviours are attachment based and triggered, so substance based systems don't reflect my experiences of addiction at all.

We're not modelling our own reality in this game world, it's a world where most (all?) of our own laws of physics don't apply, and everything has a mythic basis, not a real-world-scientific one. Sentient beings in Glorantha are driven by runes, not by the same kind of triggers that drive us here on Earth.

Edited by Steve
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My theory - addiction is Urain silently whispering the unthinkable to the secret hearts of those tempted to listen. The Hazia brings the addict a little closer to the madness. 

This theory adds a frisson of danger - at any moment there is a small risk the addict might burst into senseless rage, and turn their now chaoticly strengthened hate against their loved ones.

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  • 2 months later...

Hazia comes from the stamens of a plant native to the Stinking Forest.  Those stamens are pretty large or the prices of 1-10L per dose are wildly inaccurate, based on the price of saffron in the pre-industrial world.  Hazia is a powerfully addictive euphoric that is smoked or inhaled, and eaten by trolls.  It produces an effect that feels like discorporation, which means that it feels as if one's spirit is being untethered.  The effects of the drug act using potency, not POW, with one dose being POT 10 matched against CON, and if the roll is failed, the user wants more.  While the use of poison as a mechanic for describing the effects of Hazia addiction (Page 9, Sun County), it would be easy enough to home brew some rules involving an Addiction Spirit if one were so inclined.

Here are some alternative ideas for what happened to Hazia:

Lets start from the perspective that Hazia is a sweet little plant deity that has an ability to help creatures remember the Green Age.

1) Perhaps the Alrdyami decided to use Hazia as a guard for their prisoners, as Hazia's smoke would keep them enthralled and they would never try to escape.

2) Perhaps Hazia made friends with Ompalam on the Spike, and learned much about control and domination, and learned to make chains for the mind which even Seseine would envy.

3) Optionally, the discorporation-like effect is actually more than that, and Hazia can naturally prolong discorproration and thus enhance shamanic journeys.  This would no doubt entail an interaction between Hazia and Horned Man back before time.

4) Perhaps Hazia made friends with the Trickster, and told trickster that Hazia wanted to win the love of someone, so Trickster "helped", and now when consumed in the "fires of love", Hazia's smoke will overcome the inhaler with joy and desire for more.  "So... I have to be dried and burned to get any affection? Thanks Trickster, you suck."

 

Edited by Darius West
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12 hours ago, EricW said:

Perhaps Hazia grew from fragments of Trickster's ear wax or other unmentionable detritus which he carelessly dropped in the stinking forest during the green age... 

Hmm... My money is on the Alrdyami, the Guide to Glorantha points out that apparently hazia isn't the only drug of addiction they have created for human consumption and control.

Edited by Darius West
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9 hours ago, Darius West said:

Hmm... My money is on the Alrdyami, the Guide to Glorantha points out that apparently hazia isn't the only drug of addiction they have created for human consumption and control.

Trickster could still have been involved. 

I mean, imagine the Aldryami coming across the smelly scene of Trickster's careless vandalism of their green space, wondering what the hell to do to clean up the mess. Then someone notices a few humans smoking the strange plants which grew from Tricksters earwax or nasal debris (or worse). Just as they're about to attack, to prevent more careless use of FIRE in their forest, some of the humans who smoked the strange plants started cuddling the trees, behaving like elf friends .

Horrible - they burnt some of the plants, used FIRE in the FOREST, inhaled the smoke. Then they cuddled the remaining plants. What a dilemma - they're burning some of the strange plants that Trickster left behind,  then started cuddling the trees. That hazia dryad looks cute - a little loopy looking, but very pretty. Maybe the mess left behind by Trickster isn't entirely useless after all... 

And thus the cult of Green Eurmal was born.

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Also, aside from any spirits, you could argue that addiction happens the same way everything else happens – someone did it in the Godtime, and now that pattern is imprinted on the world. The upside of this is that if said mythic figure broke free of the addiction, that means that there is now a heroquest available to do that. 
 

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