[HQ Ignorance] Some OOC lunar background (& more Scene 62)

[Lev Lafayette]

Thanks for this Nic, it's an important contribution
and makes me realise that I'll probably need to get
and read ILH2 as well as #1.

I do want to get Scene 62, because it obviously is
important. I must say I like what you've planned in a
narrative sense and I don't mind a bit of 'competitive
narrativism' between players.

If I add the "Overcome With Lust" feat at 6W - which
you have argued as a legitimate inclusion, and
certainly one which makes an appearance in sanctioned
rules supplement - that would bring your chance from
19W2 to 6W3.

Which means your fumble has three bumps, to failure,
success and critical whereas Lady Marianne has
'merely' a success, which means a 'minor victory'.

Which means that Marianne's previous comments come
after a passionate embrace... unless you spend Hero
Points to turn it into a major victory.

Hope this helps,



Lev

--- Nic Hughes <nicolas.h at virgin.net> wrote:

> OK, please delete and move on if you are not
> interested but the last few 
> days have revealed that I was assuming more people
> were familiar with 
> Imperial Lunar Handbook 2 (ILH2) and its contents
> than is actually the 
> case. I think a certain amount of rules-glitches and
> misunderstandings 
> may have arisen from this. So I am going to quickly
> summarise a few bits 
> that will help explain some of the things I have
> been posting.
> 
> Aalmon is a Novititiate - which is an equivalent
> rank in Lunar religions 
> to Initiate, Practitioner or Adept in other
> religions and where lunar 
> powers appear to be theist/spritist/sorcerous works
> pretty much the same.
> 
> He worships Erelia and Verelia. I'll not go into
> their mythology too 
> much but some relevant bits are that they were known
> before the rise of 
> the Red Moon but before their conversion to the
> Lunar religion were 
> considered to be somehow associated with
> Nysalor/Gbaji and it was bad 
> luck to worship them. On their conversion they saved
> Glamour from being 
> conquered by one twin seducing the leader of the
> attacking army and the 
> other eloquently converting much of his army to the
> lunar faith.
> 
> All worshippers join the religion in pairs - usually
> natural twins but 
> not always. If a twin dies they might be replaced or
> the survivor might 
> eventually abandon the religion.
> 
> As Aalmon is a Novititate he can improvise the
> listed feats within the 
> affinities he knows. He is not the equivalent of a
> Devotee so he cannot 
> improvise anything not listed.
> 
> Speaker to Barbarians has listed feats Captivate
> Crowd, Comprehend 
> Barbaric Tongue, Impassioned Speach, Overcome with
> Lust, Sense Barbaric 
> Sentiments. Some of these are limited to dealing
> with barbarians by 
> their description, others are not.
> 
> The other affinity (Binary) is explicitly limited to
> working with the 
> "twin" and cannot be used if the twin is dead, so
> not much point going 
> into it now. He might just be able to use Sense
> Location of Twin to find 
> his brother's grave should he need to but otherwise
> the affinity is 
> currently useless.
> 
> Novitiates can gain two sorts of "spirit" (really
> Lunes acting like 
> spirits) and use them in fetishes like a
> practitioner. Planet Spirit 
> (Hide in Darkness, See in Darkness, Star Walking,
> Stay on Path) and 
> Twinstar Spirits (Create Temporary Reality, Ignore
> Distractions, Reveal 
> Secrets, Seduction). Aalmon previously had a weak
> Twinstar spirit whilst 
> Baros had a powerful one, Aalmon now has a powerful
> Twinstar Spirit.
> 
> The cult has (unusually) 2 independent secrets both
> of which can be 
> learned but Aalmon is not committed enough to learn
> secrets even if he 
> had the ability ratings.
> 
> I find the magic given by a cult useful in judging
> what they consider 
> desirable or acceptable behaviour, with two
> overlapping 
> lustful/seductive magical powers available from the
> cult I don't think 
> priests of Erelia and Verelia are in the habit of
> giving 
> hell-and-brimstone sermons against lustful or
> seductive behaviour - it 
> seems to be part of the example their gods set for
> worshippers to 
> follow. Aalmon's behaviour in this direction is a
> genuine culture clash 
> between the lunarised Arrolians and the more
> conservative monotheists he 
> is currently dealing with, there is no reason why
> Aalmon would think 
> that seduction or lust are particularly bad things.
> 
> There are two references to what counts as a
> barbarian in ILH2 that I am 
> aware of. In the Erelia and Verelia cult the
> Eloquence with Barbarians 
> secret is limited to "non-imperial subjects" whilst
> the Barbarian 
> Affairs stream of the Imperial Lunar university
> covers "dealing with 
> foreigners". I have always assumed from these that
> the lunars have a 
> Roman-esque attitude to what counts as barbarian, ie
> anyone who does not 
> share the roots of their own culture and language.
> Arrolians speak New 
> Pelorian and worship lunar religions so are not
> barbarians, arguably 
> some theist offshoots of celestial religions like
> Yelmalio might also 
> not be barbarian.
> 
> Aalmon has just been "revealed" to also be a
> novitiate of the Minderkind 
> School (i.e. I spent the HP on membership), this is
> not published in 
> ILH2 but is in several sources as the primary
> Wizardry order of 
> Riverjoin which is his home city. I will fill out
> the Grimoires/spells 
> for this school as time goes by but I think they
> will be distant 
> descendents of the lunar Makabeus order and will
> retain the Tome of 
> Humility as one of their grimoires.
> 
> Aalmon is also illuminated. I'm not going to
> reproduce several pages of 
> ILH2 on that here but basically this means he is
> alternately comforted 
> by a mystical understanding of one-ness of
> everything or crushed by the 
> sheer inhuman scale of it all. Certain events can
> trigger a crisis that 
> shift him from one state to the other - fighting
> chaos creatures is one 
> of those events. When crushed by the scale of
> everything illuminates 
> still progress towards enlightenment but tend
> towards nihilistic 
> attitudes and manifest personality flaws such as
> megalomania and/or 
> sheer wierdness like a fear of drinking vessels.
> Aalmon is fixated on 
> his status as a bastard and as a result of this
> derangement tends to act 
> like a ...bastard. On the plus side certain issues
> and constraints that 
> normally apply do not apply to illuminates, they
> seem to transcend 
> otherworld limitations a bit so can resist
> otherworld-specific powers 
> like Drain Essence or Blast Spirit and do not use
> (or need) the rules on 
> concentrating magic. They also have a resistance to
> insanity other than 
> that which is part of the package-deal of
> illumination. Overall it acts 
> like a sort of mystical, ethical, bi-polar disorder.
> 
> Hopfully that will cut out a few misunderstandings
> so we can concentrate 
> on the story.
> 
> Play on.
> 
> Nic
> 
> 
> 
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