The Book of Visitations of Glory
Issue Two | Winter 2001
Comments and Kudos on Visitations of Glory #1
ROBERT A. DUSHAY Everything old is new again. I very much enjoyed issue #1. The art was terrific, and the submissions were all great, too.
KRISTA DONNELLY I liked the conflicting motivations of all the characters, especially the situation between Ngaya and Kotaru. It would be amusing to see how two players work this out. Krista, have you ever run this besides your playtest session? Could you describe how the playtest went? (One of the cool things in Pagan Publishing’s Realm of Shadows campaign was writing up what players did when the game was playtested.)
MALCOLM HEATH Sárku remains one of the more popular deities for players to pledge themselves to in my games. Since we know Sárku is considered a respectable deity for good, solid citizens to worship, I’m always interested in portrayals of this faith as something other than undead-worshipping fanatics. Nice job. I wonder, given your Ritual of Transition to the Eternal, where a worshipper is immured with a corpse, if devoted members of the temple seek permanent living entombment in small chambers underground, where they are fed, but they spend their lives in observation and contemplation, in worshipful imitation of Lord Sárku’s undead? On the other hand, I’d think Sárku’s doctrine might also say that life has its place, and there will be an eternity to enjoy the delights of eternal knowledge and observation of the inevitable corruption of all.
BRAD JOHNSON Tékumel fiction is always nice. I particularly liked the idea of “no redemption” for Hrithik. It seems to me a good cautionary tale for why the followers of the Goddess are expected to not put things away for a rainy day. Is your tale supposed to be a myth or tale for followers of the Goddess, a story of an “actual event,” or am I just taking things too darned seriously?
FLOYD BRIGDON Thanks for supervising and running this gig. Regarding your map, I’ve often wondered how the Tsolyani deal with mapping the underworld or other features when they don’t use maps. I’d bet the tomb robbing clans simply mark the walls down there in their argot, and don’t have any external maps at all.
ROBERT SVARD My name is Robert Svärd, I’m born and raised in Uppsala, the old heathen capital of Sweden (1000 years ago at least ...) but have also managed to live in Hong Kong as well as Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve been involved in RPG’s since I was 9 but like many others quit the hobby when I started uni (my major is Media and Communication sciences at Uppsala University). The thing that brought me back two years ago was Tékumel, and now I’m a zealot here in Sweden, busy converting others to the Faith. I can’t get enough of Tékumel, even though what I have read so far is limited to the novels and what is available online. Hence my gaps in knowledge about Tékumel. The weaver of my skeins of destiny has willed me to leave my safe place in Sweden and move to Tokyo in September 2001, where I assume it will be even more difficult to find likeminded Tékumel fans.
Even though I pride myself on my skills in the English language my contributions will probably be limited to art, as I enjoy drawing as well as writing. As usual, some are better than others, so be choosy! Not all of them are “correct”. robertsvard@yahoo.com
MALCOLM HEATH Ngángmuru!
I fear that this letter must be brief in the extreme, but I did want to set down my comments on the last issue for posterity, as well as to mention a few corrections to my own piece last time.
On a more personal note, things out here in shady Portland, Oregon (Bulwark of the Western Empire) have been somewhat crazy, both at work, and also in regards UCON, for which I am leading up the efforts to put on a LARP, since David Aitken had to bow out. I am also getting set to record the conversation with Professor Barker at the event. I’m very, very excited to be attending this, and I hope to see most if not all of you there.
Now, on to the comments. In a different form, these were posted to the Yahoo Group’s list for the APA, but I stand by them:
STEVEN W Great Pé Chói! I think you got them exactly right. It’s interesting that so many of the pictures of Pé Chói have them standing at the same angles that you do; it seems to fit them, somehow. I am about as far away from being able to put pencil to paper and make anything other than cryptic marks as Everest is from the bottom of the sea; I really respect anyone who does this, and then puts it out for folks to see.
KRISTA D I am very impressed. Another thing I have a great deal of trouble with is actually organizing adventures in a logical and understandable fashion. I especially liked the character of Ngaya. She’s in probably the most powerful position of all of them; she knows where the money is, has a hold on at least a few of the other characters, and could (if the character played it this way) find out a lot more about what is going on since she’s “just the Master’s daughter” and possibly to be ignored. I’m trying to figure out a way she could manage to get around the stipulation about not becoming aridáni, and still keep the ferry rights. I’m looking forward to what you submit this time.
ROBERT D While OTE isn't really my style, I was interested to read about it, since I see that as another way to game social interaction. It brings up interesting issues regarding how to handle this. On the one hand, you have something like S&G, where you "roll to impress your superior" with bonuses for inducements, and the way that I like to do it, which is with no dice at all (I’m lucky to have had players that accept this method; it could seem very unfair to some, I think). Good stuff, overall.
DCSIII Wow. I remember seeing stuff that you did quite a while ago. I really like it.
MALCOLM This could have been expanded a bit. Originally I intended it as a general introduction to the faith of the Worm, but trimmed it, since it was becoming vague and unwieldy. Originally this section was cast as an interview. I think it works better this way. In addition to this, after publication, I realized that I was mislead slightly by the noble Héjesh hi Kolúmra, however. The last two ceremonies he mentions, namely The Night of Perceiving the Horizon of Death, and The Ritual of the Transition to the Eternal, are actually Durritlámish rituals. I assume that they are Outer Rituals, otherwise, how could Héjesh have known about them? I also assume that he wanted to have 5 rituals to tell me about, since five is the number of his dread Lord, Sárku.
BRAD J Very interesting piece. Did you intention this as a story that might be told for the education of young Dlamélish worshippers? I really like the fact that it tells a moral completely opposite than what we get in modern western society.
FLOYD B Great job on the collation, and lovely calligraphy on the title banner. The good luck map is cool! In some ways the first things we do with this hobby remain the best; the start of creative endeavor, a first flash of fun and excitement.
