> I feel that less is often more.
Is this the RuneQuest Adventures Fanzine editorial policy? It would go some way towards explaining the price-to-pagecount discrepancies which beset the UK marketplace!
One possibility:
> ... why we know so little about the "post-Malkion, pre-Hrestol non-
> Brithini Malkioni": there weren't any. Just Good Brithini, Dead
> Brithini, and Pagans. Anything you've ever heard different is a
> Hrestolist RetCon.
This doesn't gel with my view of Malkion as an exiled Brithini (ergo, by definition, not a "Good Brithini"). The Prophet's *unaging* survival throughout the Great Darkness is a good thing for Malkioni believers to twit the stubborn Brithini with: how can Malkion's Revelation have been wrong, if he suffered no ill effects for bringing it to the world and teaching it? (The Brithini could, of course, point at similarly unaging Vadel, while raising their quizzically Logical eyebrows...)
Another possibility:
> Either [Solace] was Manifest in some way, so you know who went there,
> after the fact, or one could use Logic to determine who got lucky.
If Solace were a Logically-provable thing, IMHO, the Brithini would have known about (i.e. not needed to "believe in") Solace. I'd incline to say that both Malkion's and Hrestol's ascension to Solace were Manifest, and that those who were present (and wrote their Scriptures), and/or perhaps those who worship the Prophets, meditate upon them, etc., can experience some kind of transcendent religious joy and certainty reinforcing their understanding and faith in the Prophet's teaching. You know through your personal religious experience, faith, Bumper Book of Malkionism etc. that the Prophet went to Solace; he told you what to do to go there yourself; you do it.
I believe Alex's suggestion that Hrestol's version of Solace is more accessible and comprehensible than Malkion's is correct. Later sects of Malkionism may borrow even more of the trappings of pagan belief: the Rokari in particular, with their threats of Hellfire and Damnation to those who lapse from the Laws. Fits with Western doctrine of devolution over time.
> I feel that less is often more.
I shall endeavour to recall this philosophy when replying to your future posts...
> It's really just a philosophical overview, laid atop the pre-existing
> religions, in which such religions are more or less cynically used for
> power. The Lunar Way is a parallel in that it also is an overview.
Yep, I'd agree almost 100%: I think the Carmanians were often not cynical but practical in their adoption of mere theistic cults into the body of acceptable orthodox practice. Though, to be sure, there's a fine line between practicality and cynicism in matters of religion.
The Lunar Way of course inherits a whole bunch of attitudes from Carmania (and could therefore be seen as an outgrowth rather than a parallel).
> I feel that less is often more.
Write less, then!
> My impression now is that Syranthir made the 3rd Eye into some sort of
> government supported position, ie making the supply of armour into a
> state function instead of every man having to provide his own.
Nah. What happened is that Syranthir's grandson, Surandar, went on a heroquest to visit the three-eyed smith-god Piku in his Mines at Kitor, and performed the tasks that gained him the first of the impenetrable brass-scaled coats. These are manufactured by Piku's dwarf slaves, which he conquered in myth with the aid of Daxdarius the Pelandan, who received the first hoplite panoply in return. I don't know quite how excellent the modern armour produced by Piku would be, or exactly what the Lunars and Carmanians must do on their heroquest to obtain it.
Syranthir, of course, led an army where every man already had his own armour and equipment: he also was not present at the foundation of the Carmanian State, remaining a mercenary general employed by the Free Pelandans right up until his disappearance (Syranthir is father of the First Shah, Carmanos: he is not himself a Shah/King of Carmania).
The betrayal of the Pelandan allies and imposition of Carmanian rule in place of the Spolite Empire was also performed by Surandar: his father, Carmanos, had been the First Shah, but this was not yet a territorial or regal role: more like a glorified combination of sacral warleader and lawgiver. Carmanos was granted some land for his army, mostly barren highlands the Pelandans had no use for: this fact helps shape Carmanian "Hard (us) vs. Soft (them)" attitudes (look at the end of the last scroll of Herodotus for more of the same), which form part of their Dualism.
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