>> Teelo Norri: Urk. I'm dead... Wait a minute... No I'm not, I'm the >> Red Goddess!
> I've heard various opinions that Teelo Norri was used as the
> "personage" the Red Goddess was incarated into... Is there some
> hard canon that says Teelo Norri become the goddess?
Here's a long cut'n'paste of floppy canon: the Issaries, Inc. writeup of the cult of Rufelza, the Red Moon Goddess:
http://www.glorantha.com/hw/cultlong_rufelza.html
MYTHOLOGY BEFORE TIME The following story is told about Rufelza as a goddess. However, it is also told about Teelo Norri (who was born during a period of oppression in Dara Happa, aided peoples in their struggles, and was slain then reborn during her God quest), depending on the needs of the teller and of the listener.
Rufelza was born during the Darkness. She began life as an orphan, lost in the world until found by a pair of poor peasants who raised her simply as a farmer, like them. She learned of her mysterious origins and went in search of her true parents. She had no idea of her powers and she made many mistakes during the Golden and the Storm Ages. At first, when she learned of her true parents, she went mad. However, in madness lay her salvation and from that she gained control of her Lunar Powers. Lunar power gave her understanding of and power over the cycles of rebirth and death.
Rufelza taught people (and some other creatures) her knowledge, and it was useful to them in the Gods War. But the gods didn't want humans to have knowledge and power and so they punished Rufelza. Many humans shielded and protected Rufelza from the gods, and she took refuge among them by taking their form, but at last the Emperor captured her, tortured her, and cast her parts around the cosmos.
However, Rufelza was immortal, and her divine spark remained alive, reborn again and again among humanity, awaiting the right time and place to be recognized and brought back into power.
HISTORY SINCE TIME BEGAN Rufelza was recognized, blessed, and empowered to come back to divine life 400 years ago. This miracle was wrought by the Seven Mothers, who became her first disciples. For twenty-seven years she was known as Teelo Estara, the Living Goddess. She went through the worlds and assembled her true body from where it had been hidden. She brought all the pieces together and recreated herself in the sky, where we see her now. The Seven Mothers had not just been loyal disciples of Teelo Estara, they were parts of her, and so Rufelza honored them by manifesting one of them in each of her phases.
Rufelza rose into the sky during the Sacred Time of 1247 S.T. The Lunar Empire is the result of her life's work.
MODE OF WORSHIP, RITUAL AND HOLY DAYS ... Children are sometimes offered to the Goddess by the devout (or, say most cynics, the poor) to symbolize Teelo Norri's loss of self as she became Estara. Such children are blessed, for they give up their old life to start a new one in emulation of the Goddess. Such children are raised in the many Teelo Norri orphanages that can be found throughout Lunar lands.
> Or is this just because of the tendency of peole to want things to
> be clear by trying to find a clear role for her in the seven mothers
> quest?
What, as "humble human sacrifice and victim of evil conspirators who turns out to be the reincarnation of the cosmic creatrix, reborn within time and reassembling her previous selves to become the saviour of us all, subsequently floating up to become the Red Moon"?
*That* kind of clarity??
I say, just sing "Pelorian Rhapsody" a couple of times and pollute what's left of your meme pool:
http://www.etyries.com/songbook/rhapsody.htm
Cheers, Nick
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