Opposed runes

From: Nils Weinander <niwe_at_ppvku.ericsson.se>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 08:24:51 +0200


David Cake:
>Well, I will agree that not everyone thinks that combining Opposed
>Runes is necessarily Bad, but I do think the concept has some validity. In
>fact, I will even go so far as to claim that the 8 opposed pairs of the
>Power runes is probably intellectually understood by just about everyone
>that actually uses the Runes. They will have very different interpretations
>of what 'opposed' means, but the basic idea is there.

Given the holistic nature of the Kralorelan mystic world view, I think that they don't recognize the opposed pairs. Instead they see each pair as a continuum. Here's what Red Tiger says about the subject:

'The westerners who set up the False Dragon Ring and brought us from the true Kralorelan way did not understand the nature of the world. In their zeal to categorize everything they claimed for example that life and death are separate entities and furthermore that they are opposed forces which should not be mixed. That is clearly a misconception. Without life there could be no death, without death there would be no new life. Generation following generation under the wise guidance of the Dragon Emperor shows this without doubt. Dying doesn't change you from one state to another, it just moves you along an unbroken path.'

Also, in my view of Glorantha, the Teshnans see opposed pairs, but they introduce a third, balancing force in them. The main triad is Creation- -Upholding (inspired by the indian Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu).

For the runes this could mean that the Kralorelans have rune-equivalents where e.g. Death and Life are combined, while the Teshnans have a third rune representing the balancing between Life and Death.


Nils W				| It's hard to win when you always loose
Office: niwe_at_ppvku.ericsson.se	| 

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