I hope this eminently sensible point doesn't drown in the expletives ("bollocks", "straw man" etc). I agree with Jeff that beliefs change with time. I would like to expand on this a bit.
The changes to beliefs and cultic practices are of two kind. First there are the slow and gradual changes as society in general changes. Old customs are forgotten and new are added. When a region is urbanized prayers for good hunting luck are less important than those for good trade. Patrons of the crafts are more important than patrons of cattle. Etc.
Second, there are the sudden religious reformations. I would say that these do not change the nature of the deities as much as the other way around. The reforms are instigated because the reformer percieved that the cult didn't fit the nature of her deity (any more). Anything else would be rather blasphemous for a pious believer.
To take one of the dreaded real word examples, Martin Luther didn't start his reformation to change the nature of Christ, but because he thought the roman church didn't match the nature of Christ as revealed by the gospels.
Few Gloranthan religions seem to have holy scripture, but they do have Divination.
Before the outcries start, there are also the exceptions: Arkat changed religion by his creative heroquesting and membership in various cults. The God Learners messed around with myths. Paraphrasing Greg Stafford's words, everything Arkat touched turned to dust (and he betrayed every cause eventually). We all know what happened to the God Learners. So it seems that these active changes don't turn out very well.
Finally, I can think of grey areas, like Lokamayadon. I don't think he worked on the Arkat/GL level, but he biased his reforms to his own advantage.
Jeff again:
>
> I suspect that most Gloranthan peoples' "core myths" (an admittedly fuzzy
> concept) have true validity and reveal key cosmological truths that pertain
> to these "core myths" but I think people also have a vast amount of
> misknowledge about everything else.
Another gem of sensible thought!
I also think that the "fundamental nature" of Glorantha manifests itself a few times: the recreation of the universe at the end of the chaos war, the backlash against the god learners. I suspect that the constant transformations and changing masks of the moon goddess has something to say about this as well.
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