No, look at the runes on his belt. He always was and always will be a Lunar. He had no breath!
If he knew the secret of I Fought We Won and the same challenge that Wakboth laid before Second Son, he’d be free. But he always loved the Shepelkirt. This just made him from a lay member into an Initiate.
My guess is that before all of this he was a member of an animist Tradition, as is common on the plains.
Beat-Pot was not a Lunar – given that nearly all the equipment of the slave rebellion came from the Lunars, and that the Lunar Empire is the source of much luxury and status goods in Pent (and in Balazar and even Dragon Pass), it is not surprising he was wearing Lunar gear!
My view on Kabalt, the Liberating Bolt, is that it only looks like it takes an instant when seen from the mundane plane — in the Otherworld, it’s a mystical debate like this one, just (usually) to the death. However in this case presumably Beatpot’s going to survive seeing as much of the All as Jar-eel is is showing him, and end up Illuminated instead of dead. (But if he didn’t, all and surviving soldiers around him would see is red-golden lightning flashing from Jar-eel to Beatpot, followed by him dropping dead.)
Kabalt is indeed Vithelan, normally from the mystical martial artist lineage of Darja Danad and the deity Hensarava who trained with him, though it seems to be related to Mashunasan’s Jerema Madoon (Liberating Bolt). My theory is that Jar-eel is doing something similar here, that all of these are mystical abilities to drag an opponent into the Otherworld and force them into a ‘learn or die’ exposure to the mystical All, so the target ends up either Illuminated or dead (or possibly Occluded). Basically it’s an offensive use of something similar to the Sevening ritual, in this case possibly using the ‘witness a massive, meaningless death’ trigger for being ‘attacked by the All’ — Jar-eel was standing on a vast pile of corpses when she initiated it.
It’s one of the joys of Glorantha, that ‘Oh now I get it!’ feeling when you discover some missed detail about a myth, place, hero, or whatever else have you.
Glorantha and Tekumel are worthy successors to JRRTJr. They are real ‘worlds’ not just ‘milieu’. Everything else is just doesn’t cut it.
There is a lack of compassion in Lunar/Nylassor illumination that isn’t in line with Buddhist style enlightenment. The Buddha who refused to eat animals would have never built an empire based on slavery. Trying to equivalize Lunar/Nylassor illumination with Buddhist enlightenment is a misunderstanding. (and as a very poor follower of Buddha, it really pisses me off. 🙂 )
Mystical schools often paradoxically combine opposites as a way of breaking the seeker out of dualistic thinking. The Lunars seem to be particularly fond of using the Life/Death = kindness/cruelty = sex/suffering dualism for this. It may also be relevant that their Goddess reached Enlightenment after being tortured and devoured by chaos (see link in the comments on the next page for Greg’s telling of Sedenya’s god-quest).
As for Nysalorian illumination, it’s pretty clear that Nysalor was an occluded mystic (i.e. insane) at least part of the time — at a guess, Arkat was illuminated whenever Nysalor was occluded and vice-versa, until the illuminated one killed the occluded one on top of the Tower of Justice (or possibly the other way around). Nysalorian/Arkati mysticism seems to be very fond of the light/darkness duality.
Really nice. But what god did Beat-Pot worship before that?
My guess is the West King Wind, though his ability to worship anything while a kitchen slave may have been sketchy at best.
No, look at the runes on his belt. He always was and always will be a Lunar. He had no breath!
If he knew the secret of I Fought We Won and the same challenge that Wakboth laid before Second Son, he’d be free. But he always loved the Shepelkirt. This just made him from a lay member into an Initiate.
My guess is that before all of this he was a member of an animist Tradition, as is common on the plains.
Beat-Pot was not a Lunar – given that nearly all the equipment of the slave rebellion came from the Lunars, and that the Lunar Empire is the source of much luxury and status goods in Pent (and in Balazar and even Dragon Pass), it is not surprising he was wearing Lunar gear!
My view on Kabalt, the Liberating Bolt, is that it only looks like it takes an instant when seen from the mundane plane — in the Otherworld, it’s a mystical debate like this one, just (usually) to the death. However in this case presumably Beatpot’s going to survive seeing as much of the All as Jar-eel is is showing him, and end up Illuminated instead of dead. (But if he didn’t, all and surviving soldiers around him would see is red-golden lightning flashing from Jar-eel to Beatpot, followed by him dropping dead.)
Jeff, you’re the boss, so I’ll take your word like that of Greg’s. So, what cults did Beat-Pot worship, then?
Is Kabalt the Liberating Bolt a Lunar thing? I thought it was a Vithelan mystical practice.
Kabalt is indeed Vithelan, normally from the mystical martial artist lineage of Darja Danad and the deity Hensarava who trained with him, though it seems to be related to Mashunasan’s Jerema Madoon (Liberating Bolt). My theory is that Jar-eel is doing something similar here, that all of these are mystical abilities to drag an opponent into the Otherworld and force them into a ‘learn or die’ exposure to the mystical All, so the target ends up either Illuminated or dead (or possibly Occluded). Basically it’s an offensive use of something similar to the Sevening ritual, in this case possibly using the ‘witness a massive, meaningless death’ trigger for being ‘attacked by the All’ — Jar-eel was standing on a vast pile of corpses when she initiated it.
It’s one of the joys of Glorantha, that ‘Oh now I get it!’ feeling when you discover some missed detail about a myth, place, hero, or whatever else have you.
Glorantha and Tekumel are worthy successors to JRRTJr. They are real ‘worlds’ not just ‘milieu’. Everything else is just doesn’t cut it.
“I AM” is an illusion? This is not wholly in line with Buddhist style enlightenment – depends on which word you put the emphasis I guess…
There is a lack of compassion in Lunar/Nylassor illumination that isn’t in line with Buddhist style enlightenment. The Buddha who refused to eat animals would have never built an empire based on slavery. Trying to equivalize Lunar/Nylassor illumination with Buddhist enlightenment is a misunderstanding. (and as a very poor follower of Buddha, it really pisses me off. 🙂 )
Mystical schools often paradoxically combine opposites as a way of breaking the seeker out of dualistic thinking. The Lunars seem to be particularly fond of using the Life/Death = kindness/cruelty = sex/suffering dualism for this. It may also be relevant that their Goddess reached Enlightenment after being tortured and devoured by chaos (see link in the comments on the next page for Greg’s telling of Sedenya’s god-quest).
As for Nysalorian illumination, it’s pretty clear that Nysalor was an occluded mystic (i.e. insane) at least part of the time — at a guess, Arkat was illuminated whenever Nysalor was occluded and vice-versa, until the illuminated one killed the occluded one on top of the Tower of Justice (or possibly the other way around). Nysalorian/Arkati mysticism seems to be very fond of the light/darkness duality.
“I AM” is an illusion because “We Are All Us” 🙂