: GURPS tells us, however, that the Spider-Cult was human.
: And given that the Smiths inhabited the catacombs for
: a few centuries, it makes sense to suppose that the
: spider engravings were created by them rather than the
: original Dwarven masons.
GURPS tells us that there were humans were IN the spider-cult, not that it was explicitly human. This passage:
"Connacht could no longer ignore the atrocities committed by the Spider-cult but when he assailed their shrines, no trace could be found of the Smiths of Muirthemne or their followers..."
-Spider Flavor Text, Myth II
seems to indicate to me that the cults were at least founded by the Smiths, and later gathered a human following.
: I really don't see where you get that this is a Fetch
: spirit. The Devoid effect simply looks like a lot of
: energy being radiated from some point within the
: Devoid (presumably Balor's head). It's going up
: because that central point is downwards. :-P
Ah, as Martel has pointed out, it is not quite a Fetch spirit, as it has no vaguely-humanoid features.
: Also, if the Devoid is a portal to the Spider world, all
: the Fetch (talented sorceresses all) would be living
: around there, researching and experimenting, until
: they figure out a way they can travel through it and
: get home. Assuming, of course, that they couldn't
: simply buy a few Dwarven parachutes and jump.
Perhaps they don't KNOW it leads to their world? Humans tap the magics and follow the known wills of their gods, but don't receive explicit tactical information from them. I figure the Fetch would be the same.
: And why would Balor's head release a massive Fetch
: spirit, anyway? Did it land on a really big Fetch? :-)
I wasn't saying it was an actual Fetch-spirit in the game-world, but that the energy effect was an enlarged Fetch-spirit sprite. But Martel disproved that.
: If the Dark Gods and the Spider Gods were the same, and
: behind the cycle, wouldn't the Fetch and the spiders
: *want* to work with the Dark for the foreseeable
: future? (GURPS points out that they must be obeying
: their gods' commands; otherwise they'd lose their
: magic.) And wouldn't they be permanent buds with the
: Ghôls?
Again, there's that bit about information and not knowing everything your gods know. The Fetch hate the living of our world, but they hate EVERYTHING in our world in general. That seems to be the Old/Dark/Spider Gods' standing orders; our world is evil and a thing to be destroyed. They worked with Balor because he was the Leveller, destined to destroy the world. Working with other Dark commanders would just be helping one part of this world against the other, when they want them ALL destroyed. Soulblighter being the exception, because he promised to send them home (and probably could, as he knows all about the Tain realm too. Maybe even Myrdred could send them home - he's very skilled at interplanar magics).
As for their allegiance with other races like Spiders and Ghols, the Spiders could be animals like wolves, who are from their world and created by their god but are just hungry animals that will attack anything. And the Ghols are (A) Stupid animals who worship hunks of rocks thinking they ARE the Dark Gods, who the Fetch don't neccesarily know to be the same as their gods, and (B) From our world. Presumably. Actually, Ghols DO have that long-and-lanky look, plus the skin-and-bones head. Perhaps they are relics of the Dark Gods' world, pre-Wyrd, left behind because they're just stupid animals (same reason they weren't TRO-KIKd)?
