My take on Praxian mythology is that it is terribly broken and that the Praxians fail to see it, through a combination of ignorance and pride. This is not false pride. The Praxians survive in one of a small handful of the least hospitable places in Glorantha. When outlanders come to even the best part of Prax, they find it hard to survive.
There are two huge breaks in Praxian mythology. The first was the devastation of the darkness. There was a thriving set of overlapping cultures in the greatlands. Chaos destroyed it so thoroughly that many of the Praxians' stories about it amount to fairy takes -- they have a hidden grain of truth, but the Praxians cannot find them on the hero plane.
Waha was amazing. He brought together enough of the broken remnants to form a culture that managed to thrive in one of the worst places in the world. That is a huge accomplishment. He is as great a silver age hero as is found in any other culture. The Praxians are less magically potent than many of their outlander neighbors simply because the entities that should have been their native great spirits are dead, missing, or, like Storm Bull, so broken that they can't fulfill the role of a cultural god.
The second great break broke the Praxians' knowledge of Waha. (This is my particular take, which I derive from canon, but is never even hinted at in the canon.) The Waha that is commonly described arrives from no where and nothing. He walks out of the Paps full-grown. He goes around fixing things that need to be fixed, without first having to sdiscover that they need to be fixed. He pulls together all the remnants, without first discovering that they need tobe unified. Does that seem likely, even in the darkness? I think not.
I think he has a history that was known before this second great break. Remember that Pavis fought Waha and took his "hamstrings." What does that mean? Recall that this is during time, so Waha is not literally riding around the plaines on a daily basis. Instead, his worshippers are interacting with him through animist worship. I suggest that what actually happened was that Pavis -- an epic heroquester with EWF ties in an age of epic heroquesting -- broke the Praxians' knowledge of their own god. The Praxians have lost their knowledge of Waha's origin and some of his magic. I believe that the reference to the hamstrings is a reference to a portion of the Waha bundle that was destroyed. When the Greatest Khans try to become Waha through the magic of the Waha bundle, it doesn't work. Later, they discover the work-around known as Jaldon.
So what is the rest of Waha's history? I think it is Foundchild. Foundchild's history fits. We know of his origin. He might be some kind of giant, since he grew up in three days. He did important things, teaching people how to hunt. And he had social interactions -- there we people following him. Then he decided to go off on an important quest and never returned. I suggest that what he was doing was going to the Paps to bring about a union with one of the few other power centers available. He went into the Paps with some other name and emerged with the name Waha, having proven he was the son of Eiritha and Storm Bull. This also helps explain why a Waha khan must marry an Eirithan -- which is not what you would expect if the relationship between Waha and Eiritha is a typical son-to-mother relationship. Instead, this represents a union of leadership; it also represents a rejection of whoever Helpwoman truly was. Perhaps there is a tragedy there.
(The Foundchild of Balazar might be a completely different person, though I suspect that traversing Dagori Inkarth and the Giant Mountains might have been easier back then. Since I never play in Balazar, Ii don't have to figure that one out.)
I think that one of the great stories of the Praxians during the hero wars is the rediscovery of this knowledge and the strife it engenders. It certainly "powers up" Waha once the truth becomes magically useful, but think what it does in a social structure where hunters are of a lower social status.
Chris
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