We know that Gloranthans are not exactly universally literate so we can give their scribes a lot of room for error when it comes to getting every single character uniform and all the words spelled right. On the other hand, runes are power there and changing the spelling changes the sense of what you're writing about whether you're doing it deliberately or not.
So Malia starts out spelled with two L in COT and adopts the "modern" one-L spelling by Gods of Glorantha while simultaneously the treatment of the cult softens. Might this be a way to denote the schizoid nature of the cult in the world, with people who favor the "Mallia" form being more inclined to believe the goddess is an outright chaos figure and those who spell it "Malia" take the more sophisticated "part and parcel of mortal life" view?
If so, please, diehard Orlanthi, go ahead and use that second L. It will help us all know where you stand.
I'm still working out my Dara Happan Y=Z=B complex so will spare you that part here. But I remain transfixed by the notion that This Means Something where the core truth rune (Y) is concerned and that you can see this self-evident in the evolution of Elmal to YElmal when the upland sun is "adopted" into the solar pantheon. All it takes is adding or subtracting a Y to greg the god. Similarly, strip Yelm's Y and you get "ehilm." (Still nothing conclusive about (Z)aYtenar, which I'm sure comes as a relief to all.)
The evolution of T(y)en to T(h)an may hint at what exactly happened to that god as well. (May tie into the curious rarity of the TH character in old Dara Happan and the fate of THolm, but probably not.)
The inability of the tribal smart people to spell their own god's name consistently has been noted elsewhere. Why not go with it and posit that variations in spelling represent either (a) regional and/or doctrinal disputes (b) an inner mystery of the god L(h)ank(h)or M(h)y? Either way, at the western limits of his cult, "Sir Lammy" has lost all his aspirates and is reduced to just a blowhard.
Khordavu had his own unique rune KH and as far as I know nobody has ever followed this up. I would love to connect this to the problem with the beard god's name -- officially he was never ever named "LanKHor" even though confusion persists -- but that's a swemsize crock of worms.
In general, removing a key rune seems to be a favo[u]rite tactic of western sorcerers, as their truncation of various gods' names demonstrates. Or have the theists gotten the runes wrong (supplying them from themselves) and in so doing made new relationships with these entities possible?
Waha alone knows what persistent Moro(c/k)anth confusion teaches us. It might not be as simple as a mistake of C for K or vice versa because no text that's come down to us spells the beard god's name "L(h)anC(h)or." The tapir men keep their secrets and can't write anyway. Likewise, placement of vowels in HKM and MKH traditionally gives people trouble. Maybe here it's irrelevant.
Actually seeing them here I might swing wild and intimate that the fugitive H or Hs in the beard god's name are auld dragon runes and thus suspect unless written by professionals.
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