Unlike our world, where facts are facts (even when no human knows them), Glorantha is based on myth.
Myth in our world can be as important to some cultures as that which we call historical fact but in our culture the truth is literally 'out there' for us to discover by experience or science or God or whatever.
In Glorantha myth is the whole deal - when heroes and gods etc are involved in a historical account, the facts (as we see them) *can* have little bearing. It all depends on your point of view.
{did anyone watch George Lucas the other day on a sky movie channel talking about how Joseph Campbell was his mentor?}
George Lucas wrote a line in his script of Episode 4 where Obi-Wan speaks points of view: 'Luke, you're going to realise that many of the truths we cling to depend on your point of view' (or something like that) He's talking about justifying not telling Luke about his famous father and he *was* right to do it in that way. These days we rely on knowing facts. The most powerful stories don't deal in those.
If a person were alive from the beginning of Gloranthan time and had experienced everything that happened, they would know all the 'facts'. This would not stop others 'believing the lie' and having it work every bit as well for them - IN EVERY WAY.
Imagine two conflicting cultures bumping up against each other. Their contradictory myths support their ways of life and they have access to magics and other stuff because of them. When the representatives of each culture clash (as they inevitably will) there may be changes in the underpinning (?) myths of both cultures. Are the historical facts changing?? No, but it doesn't matter because reality works differently there.
Well, that's what I think anyway.
All the best
p.s. If you want my advice - take the version of events you like the most, the one that fits in your personal view of Gloranthan mythology/history and make it the truth, your truth
p.p.s It feels like I've been regurgitating that which has been brought up before many times (euww!!) but a fresh perspective may help (actually it helps me to set what I understand out for someone else, so thanks)
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 02 May 2001 09:59
To: HeroWars_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: why is everyone so down on Arkat?
> One of the things I love, which appears again and again in
Glorathan is that
> the story you get depends on who you talk to. Arkat is liked and
hated by
> so many people that after nearly a thousand years it's almost
impossible
> to get the story straight.
Uurgh, I hate that. the real world has that problem in spades; in RPG I;d much rather just get the straight dirt and know that I am making informed decisions, instead of trying to piece together which bits are/may or are not/may not be "true". I have no interest in excavating another writers arcane easter egg hunt. I don;t mind the game world having mul;tiple and contradictopry information, but it annoyes me when a bunch opf contradictory stories become your ONLY information.
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