I'm posting it now in parts before the topic dies completely.
Michael Hitchens has bundled together a series of perennial questions:
**Glorantha is (to the best of my knowledge) supposed to
**be about the investigation of the relationship between
**people and myth. If we do not understand the nature of God
**and Myth in Glorantha, how can we hope to understand
**Glorantha?
To understand myth, you first have to understand your response to the myth, and the conditions by which you came to that particular response. Myths have no single answer, no single YES/NO meaning. Their value is that they ask certain types of questions, and force YOU to come up with the synthesis, the meaning. Myths are about being human and about living in a universe that is simply TOO BIG to comprehend, but one that can be ordered by imposing categories. This shorthand and fairly arbitrary categorisation is what we call 'culture'.
Discussions relating to gods and mythology on the Digest seldom come to a common concensus, but the wonderful thing about them is that they force us to question our personal understanding of Glorantha, and to build an answer that fits in with OUR OWN understanding, that works for us in our games and in our minds.
In my understanding of Greg's personality, thinking and creativity, Glorantha is indeed about exploring the nature of myth. And because it IS myth, Greg always leaves something for us to work on and to figure out. He builds in room for a personal response, room for us to become co-creators. This is what makes Glorantha such a rich and vibrant and wondrous place, its also what makes it so &*%#_at_$## infuriating and bewildering at times, and why it can so difficult for newcomers to 'join the club'.
Greg does not intend to make it easy for us by saying, for example, 'the God Learner secret is that group belief can alter the basic patterns on the godplane, making anything possible'. It better that the GodLearner Secret remains a secret, and we think about what the GodLearner experiments meant. (We may come up with a better secret than Greg!) He leaves clues and hints, but leaves the interesting work to us.
My understanding of Greg's personal
philosophy (expressed in his shamanism and in his RQ
writings) is that it emphasises continual growth and change,
transforming your perspective and engaging your
creativity to create a synthesis. His own beliefs have
little room for absolutist Final Answers or Ultimate
Truths, and in this Glorantha is faithful to its
creator. Look at the puzzles running rampant through
'King of Sartar'. Even the date of an important battle
that occurred less than a generation before a document
was composed (Sword Hill) becomes a matter for argument and counterargument
! And there is a purpose to this: clues are scattered
if we are prepared to do the work. Who for instance, was
Kallyr's Food man, and why is he ommitted from the Companion List?
Amongst Greg's published comments on 'The Birth of Elmal' are the following:
"The nature of Mythology is never the same. Its precise nature is its mutability and ability to reform. Ambiguity, error and illusion are the stuff from which mythology is made. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND AN UNCHANGING MYTHICAL TRUTH." (my emphasis).
"I am an Arkati and cursed with knowing both sides of every question. Their (i.e. RQers who argue for or against Elmal or Yelmalio) deep convictions prove the effectiveness of our actions, whatever REALLY occurred. And most importantly, the real benefit is visible among us today."
The first quote in particular summarises the most important attitude to bring to an exploration of Glorantha: a willingness to have unanswered questions, and a willingness to make your own decisions about them.
Based on the above, my personal perspective is this: Glorantha is not only about exploring myth: Glorantha is a myth.
And that is the key to asking questions about Glorantha.
**Some people seem to be of the opinion that Elmal and
**Yelmalio are the same entity, some say they are not.
There are several ways you can view the Elmal/Yelmalio struggles.
On one level, it is simply a game meta-event like the publication of RQ3. With RQ3 and its updated cults, Gloranthan reality 'changed' in myriad small ways, but we were supposed not to notice. In 1991, Greg asked himself questions about the Orlanthi Sun God, (fairly pertinent questions IMHO), and the results meant he had to 'backdate' reality as new ideas came to the fore. It was not the first time such incompatible changes were forced upon us, nor will it be the last. You can take it or leave it. You can play your Glorantha with Elmal or without him, as Yelmalio in drag or as Elf King in sequins, in the same spirit that you may ignore fatigue rules or use RQ2 Humakti geas tables.
Another way is to attempt to assimilate this new knowledge with our existing view of Gloranthan reality. This is what I had to do: my Far Point campaign suddenly had to deal with an internal conflict (Harvar Ironfist and his Yelmalians versus the Orlanthi Elmali clans) that was suddenly as big as the Lunars and their invasion. WHOOPS! Frantic back-pedalling on all fronts. Now reconciled histories of Yelmalio & Elmal have been presented by David Hall and Steve Martin in the RuneQuest Con booklet, together with typically enigmatic but revealing comments by Greg. (I'm sure they won't mind if I send you a photocopy).
There is a third way, compatible with Gloranthan reality but nearly impossible to experience within it. Its a way I covered in some detail in TOTRM #12. Reality in Glorantha can change. Through heroquest and great magic, the timeless patterns of the godplane can be twisted and reforged. In Glorantha, not only does the interpretation of reality encapsulated in myth change over time, but also the underlying reality itself! Gods die (or are born). Memories are erased. Great magics meld and tear the fabric of being. For mortals and Gods alike, reality is something that must be fought for. So if you want to play with this idea (maximum player paranoia) it is possible to have an emic (internal i.e. playercharacter) view when you wake up one morning and Elmal suddenly exists, and in your character's memory always has. Discovering this change would be difficult - ancient temple carvings, dragons maybe, magic documents or really HEAVY heroquesting or magic would be the only ways. But its a possibility. Brrrr.
Without going into your next point too deeply, Yelmalio is not a Darra Happan god. Pletonius' writings (and occasional ravings) in 'The Glorious Reascent of Yelm' do not mention a god called Yelmalio; nor does he appear on the Gods Wall.
There IS a Yelmalio-like god called Antirius, and when Greg asked for my comments on the GRAY draft in 1992, I too initially sought to tie these myths with my knowledge of Yelmalio. Greg's comment on my reply, and subsequent pondering on my part, led me to believe it was not appropriate to do so. The incident led my Gloranthan thinking onto a new level: I now believe the problem is best addressed by looking at how WE perceive Glorantha and indeed any myth. The Monomyth is dead: cultural myth-sets in Glorantha are diverse and not necessarily compatible, just as conceptions of the same god (i.e. Humakt) vary widely from area to area. The challenge, as with any mythical truth, is to see it from the perspective of the people concerned, rather than through a reductionist, classificatory GodLearner mindset. The first challenge is to EXPERIENCE the situation and its ramifications, rather than immediately seeking to EXPLAIN it. Pre-existing boxes (i.e. our knowledge of existing gods in other cultures) should be avoided. For those us with a strong streak of academic reductionist training it can be a difficult challenge. There's a GodLearner in all of us.
The Orlanthi way of life itself embodies the experiential perspective. Most Orlanthi are religious pragmatists. Rather than speculating about the gods, they experience them. Dualism is not part of the Orlanthi world. There is no dichotomy between 'religious' and 'secular', between 'sacred' and profane'. Religion and belief pervade and inform all life. And being an oral culture, they have a deep appreciation of the nature of metaphor and mythic truth.
END PART ONE
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #23
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