Harmast, Heort and things Orlanthi

From: Jeff Richard <jrichard_at_cnw.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 15:14:03 -0700


Howdy all,

I'm glad to hear that Wizard's Attic now has Enclosure in stock - I think the MegaCorp should be carrying it soon. It is definitely worth the paltry $15 that Neil is asking for it. Loads of new material on the Orlanthi of southern Dragon Pass, the fearsome city of Alkoth and its terrible god, new stuff from Greg Stafford, and, of course, the rules for PenDragon Pass.

>Discussing Stygian stuff with Ingo, I started to wonder what importance
the Lightbringers' Quest, and >Harmast the Lightbringer, would have (had) in the Stygian Church as founded by Arkat. After all, >Harmast was the person responsible for his return from Hell, in a situation which might have ended his >crusade; and in addition to this most of his people (i.e the Enerali of Safelster and the lower river valleys >of Tanier and Doskior) had been converted by Theyalan missionaries (prior to the god project, too) and >knew of the Lightbringers and their quest.

I think you are on the right path - Harmast is a hero amongst the Heortlings and the Ralian Orlanthi, he should probably be a Hero-Saint amongst some of the Safelster Stygians. On the other hand, his story might well be subsumed into that of Arkat.

>(Although the Lightbringers prior to Harmast's quest may have been
something
>quite different from what we know about them... Jeff, what became of your
>Heort theory at the con?)

At the King of Sartar seminar, my major contribution was to emphasize that our Glorantha(s) are our stories about Greg's stories. I didn't much get into the discussion of the development of the Lightbringers' Quest through history. For those of you who are interested, basically my theory is that Harmast's Lightbringers' Quest was different (longer, more complex, and included myths not traditionally associated with the LBQ) from the LBQ known and practiced by the folk of the High Council.

BTW, anyone who is interested in culture of the Orlanthi, really should read the stuff that Greg and I put together on the Saga of the Vingkotlings. Just to correct Roderick Robertson, the Orlanthi-Lunar debate was between myself (representing an Orlanthi lawspeaker) and Greg Stafford (representing a Lunar missionary from First Blessed). The cruel plots of some to confuse me with a bearded CANADIAN shall not be tolerated.  The debates were definitely interesting to everyone involved Jeff


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