/// These are all subtle, interesting points. Yet, IMO, again, they are 21st century western points - not a Heortling's.
All elements are perfectly viable. Water folks are indeed shifty and sometimes bisexual, but it's because they are made of water, which can flow in any direction. Darkness folks are, well, somber and in fact their shadow is deeper than ours.
Also, don't forget each element is linked to a Sense : Darkness is Hearing/Darksense, Fire is Sight, Air is Smell, Water is Taste and Earth is Touch. They also correspond to a part of the Body : Darkness is the guts, Fire the Mind, Water the Blood, Air the Breath and Earth the Bones. And so on. Each elements has its place - there is no "right" and "wrong" element. Our Main Gods are Air and Earth, but we know and understand the others - and can kick their ass whenever we need to.
Finally, not everybody agrees Darkness came first. Any Dara Happan - and their culture is very old and powerful knows "First there was Light", and that darkness is a stinking, unholy condensate of things too vile to be purified by the Light. Any merman knows "Water filled the Universe" before it devolved in other elements. And so on.
Well, thinking of the things those elements are actually associated with in Glorantha, Darkness would involve discovering a link with the primordial rather than with any later powers (perhaps it's more of a realisation of being a part of Darkness rather than/more than an independent individual? Something Trollish, anyway. Finding the ties to your and everyone's primeval Mother?), while Water is largely connected to refusing to define yourself in a clear and permanent way, or at least in any way that Orlanthi society would recognise as normal - perhaps it's more about refusing to acknowledge boundaries or assume a shape rather than awakening your True Self or your soul. Perhaps it is discovering one's Flow.
Powered by hypermail