Chal appears in Revealed Mythologies as being the Seer that showed King Bulthshasam how to defeat Sekever, the Kralori Emperor, at the time (this is during the Great Darkness). There isn't much to him there.
His teachings appear in HeroQuest Voices and are pretty much self-explanatory.
> Part of my reason
> for wanting to predate Sheng in my campaign setting (in summer? next
> winter??) is to avoid having the whole of society built around Chal
> teachings that I don't understand.
My own take on the differing visions between Glorantha: the Second Age and HeroQuest/HeroWars is that at the Dawn, Teshnos was a vibrant land united in devotion to the Vessel of Light. When Errinoru, the Elf Admiral, appeared they formed an Alliance. However the effects of this Alliance is disastrous, robbing Teshnos of its vibrancy and smothering half of it in a thick jungle. Worst of all was that it left the Vessel of Light in a spiritual stupor. That's when the other traditions start to take off and by the time the God Learners effectively assert control the other traditions are running the place.
As for the other traditions presented in G:tSA, my main criticism is that some of them pay too much lip-service to Chalite theology in pretending that they are about the life-flame when it's feels better (to me) that they didn't include the life-flame in their philosophy.
As for the whole of society being built around Chal's teachings, I think it would be better to understand the main part (not the whole) of Teshnan society as being one based on reinarnation in which those who have lived the most have the most toys and rule the rest. The youngest teshnans being the simpler villagers of today will have their life-flames physically transmitted to another teshnan when they die, so they become that Teshnan. As their life-flames grow and mature, they become Priests and then Nobles before retiring beyond the Sky. So in Teshnos the rulers rule because they have truly earned that status through long generations of labour.
That said, it is possible to skip the slow but sure road to enlightenment by becoming a hero by following other teachings and a large minority of the movers and shakers of Teshnos take this route. The Chalites still dominate because they have a massive head start which they are not going to give up.
--Peter Metcalfe
Powered by hypermail