Does Glorantha have fake religions?

[Joerg]

There is also the very Gloranthan possibility to make an existing faked religion real, most easily by "finding out" that the religion has "really been X" all the time, proving that connection, and voila, real magic from the Ultimate and not just some Short World reservoir that was filled with worship.

New gods can and do arise from apotheosis of heroic (and/or demigod) individuals, too, and even ordinary mortals can become demigods as a figure of worship.

[PhilHibbs]

7 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

In the real world, that's basically what most religions (cults) think all the others are.

That is a very recent phenomenon, and by no means universal in the present day. Plenty of religious people, my aunt for example, believe that other religions are worshiping devils or evil spirits.

[Akhôrahil]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

That is a very recent phenomenon, and by no means universal in the present day. Plenty of religious people, my aunt for example, believe that other religions are worshiping devils or evil spirits.

Or that they're actually worshiping your gods under different names, Interpretatio graeca.

(Which might even be the truth in Glorantha.)

[Charles]

I believe that there is a short description / reference in Dragon Pass - A Gazeteer of Kerofinela to an entirely fake religion in the 2nd Age. I recall that Greg posted that there were fake religions in Glorantha but have no recollection of where he posted that.

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, Charles said:

I believe that there is a short description / reference in Dragon Pass - A Gazeteer of Kerofinela to an entirely fake religion in the 2nd Age. I recall that Greg posted that there were fake religions in Glorantha but have no recollection of where he posted that.

I have done a search of  DP - aGoK  using the words religion, fake, false, and 2nd as well as second and Stafford and have not found your reference, can you give me another hint?

Cheers

Edited July 10, 2019 by Bill the barbarian

[Akhôrahil]

It's questionable whether Zistor worship granted you anything, I'm thinking?

[g33k]

5 hours ago, Charles said:

I believe that there is a short description / reference in Dragon Pass - A Gazeteer of Kerofinela to an entirely fake religion in the 2nd Age. I recall that Greg posted that there were fake religions in Glorantha but have no recollection of where he posted that.

Is it possible that the 2nd-Age content is MRQ-era?

Maybe he gregged something from Mongoose, somewhere online (the old mailing list?) and the revised canon (that such-and-such a 2nd-Age cult was actually a fraud) never saw print?

[Sir_Godspeed]

3 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

It's questionable whether Zistor worship granted you anything, I'm thinking?

This is going out into some grognard water I am ill-equipped to talk about, but also wasn't there some kind of fundamental Purification Rune that the Zistorites were attempting to prove existed, but then it didn't after all? And then the Purification Rune might later be attached to the Moon Rune?

I've seen it referenced in various discussions online, but never quite ventured deep into it.

[Wrestlepig]

11 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

This is going out into some grognard water I am ill-equipped to talk about, but also wasn't there some kind of fundamental Purification Rune that the Zistorites were attempting to prove existed, but then it didn't after all? And then the Purification Rune might later be attached to the Moon Rune?

I've seen it referenced in various discussions online, but never quite ventured deep into it.

It's mentioned in the Wiki as coming from the book on the Middle Sea Empire and History of the Heortling Peoples, although the latter is from an Orlanthi perspective and doesn't mention what is going on aside from Sorcery, so it's probably in the former. I think the Moon Rune connection is very convincing speculation, although I haven't read the book myself. Obviously you should say it is so you can have a dungeon crawl in a ruined machine city to uncover moonbreaking secrets.

[Charles]

21 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

I have done a search of  DP - aGoK  using the words religion, fake, false, and 2nd as well as second and Stafford and have not found your reference, can you give me another hint?

Huckster

however, it is not as strong as I remembered.

My recollection of Greg's postings was that it was in YahooGroups or another forum, not in a book.

[Bill the barbarian]

2 minutes ago, Charles said:

My recollection of Greg's postings was that it was in YahooGroups or another forum, not in a book.

Well, Charles, on that note, we'll send someone else down that rabbit hole.

Cheers

[Roko Joko]

If I may paste two paragraphs from a sidebar on p. 105 of the HeroQuest 1 book:

Quote

Charlatans and False Belief

A world full of magic can also be a world brimming over with charlatans, hucksters, and exploiters claiming magical powers they do not have, espousing false religions, and promulgating useless magical techniques. Many crackpots and deluded souls wrongly believe that deities, spirits, pure forms, or entities of their own fevered imaginations have favored them.

Just as there is never a shortage of deceivers, the supply of gullible Gloranthans is also inexhaustible. The many false claims about magic partly explain the extreme conservatism of most Gloranthan homelands; the people who have thrived are those who refused to try alternative magic.

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by Roko Joko

[Sir_Godspeed]

"Extreme religious conservatism"

Yeah, about that...

*stares at Lightbringer Missionaries, Esrolian Grandmother Earth Revival, Kitori, Empire of Wyrm's Friends' Dragon Cult, Alakoringite Orlanth Rex Cult, Sun Domers, Elmal-Yelmalio Synthesis, and more*

That's not too bad a historical dynamism for extreme religious conservatives.

[RHW]

Ummm... Yelmalio gives you crappier spells than Elmal and is fake by certain definitions. The problem is in Glorantha if enough sucker— I mean, worshippers pump POW into something it does usually manifest some kind of result.

SEE: Nysalor 

There’s an argument to be made that the Seven Mothers are fake too. The Moon Goddess/Gbaji is real and all their power is derived from their connections to it. If the Moon dies, poof, no more Lunar pantheon.

Edited July 18, 2019 by RHW