As a rule of the thumb, any myth in which an Orlanthi cannot be conceivably be take part strikes me as one of their just so myths. In the birth of the devil, who are the participants? Thed, Malia, Ragnaglar and Wakboth. So if an Orlanthi clan was going to re-enact the myth, the only option to have a looksee IMO is to be chaotic. Likewise for the broos, who are the participants? Thed's alive. Malia's "left the conspiracy". Wakboth and Ragnaglar are dead. The only possibility that I can see is going to the late storm age, looking at the sky to see the unholy trio planets do their evil conjunction and note the appearance of the devil. But that's hardly a mythical re-enactment on the scale of the short lightbringers quest.
As for Wakboth being a result of the myth, I'm skeptical*. He appeared in Glorantha as the result of the circumstances that gave rise to the myth but I find it highly unlikely that the three deities blamed for his appearance had anything to do with it.
>> For starters, Wakboth appears in Orlanthi myth before his so-called birth.
> I don't think this is unusual in the mythology of Glorantha, given that myths are timeless.
Agreed but it does tell against the actual Wakboth (ie the one who pranced around glorantha in the chaos age) being the product of such a ritual. I think he regularly appeared earlier ("every 600 years you have come" KoS p269) as a result of a bad planetary conjunction and had to be ritually defeated. Throughout the storm age, the Orlanthi performed their tasks diligently (Vingkot's death at the hands of the Chaos Man is the result of one such conflict) but the battle of Stormfall was the one occasion in which the Orlanthi failed completely, allowing the devil to run riot throughout Glorantha.
>> and the Unholy Trio appears to be names given by the Orlanthi to the three prominent planets in the sky (which are elsewhere given different names - the Pamaltelans call them the three star witches).
> Other than the name, why is that a conflict?
The conflict is that the names the Pelandans and the Agimori give these planets are those of non-chaotic deities (the Pelandan deities are Derdo/Lokarnos, Black Dendara and Annilla while the Agimori names are Chermata - associated with Nyanka, Enjata Mo - Black Dendara and Veldara - another blue moon goddess). Names are from Revealed Mythologies and the Entekosiad.
>> Another issue is the strong disconnect between the myth of Malia as a scheming plotter against the Cosmos and the embodiment of a natural force
> I was under the impression that the natural forces were personifications of godtime events, scheming plotter and disease spreader doesn't conflict too much in my mind.
Being a scheming plotter implies intelligence and personality, naturally spreading disease does not. It's also a big leap from spreading diseases to a) listening to Rashoran b) murdering Rashoran with two other groupies to keep his teachings to yourself c) plotting with the conspirators to reintroduce chaos into the world etc. If Malia were a deity with a record of independent action (like say Thanatar), then the myth becomes more credible. But Malia, as practiced today, has the sole motivation of disease - her worshippers have little inclination to delve into forbidden lore and plot to summon chaos into the world.
--Peter Metcalfe
*My pet theory about Wakboth's origins is that in a Saga, he was described as "madness was his father, rape his mother/and disease the midwife at his birth" to indicate that this was the one scary dude and that some witless scholar took the poetry literally.
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