asked several questions:
>1. In the list of deities with enchant metal magic is the name of Tsankth
>- who is this deity who is in such rarified company as what looks like a
>pretty small list out of the possible Gods?
The List contains gods mentioned in Gods of Glorantha. If you look there, You'll find mentioned Tsankth as a Pirate God of Vormain. The reason why he's mentioned in GoG is that Greg, Sandy et al. wanted to have an example of a Vormain God and Tsankth was the only one that was likely to be encountered by Outsiders. Current thinking from those in the know seems to be that Tsankth is worshipped by some (if not most) East Isle Pirates as well.
>2. on the last page about heroquesting I saw:
>"The processes of the Lunar Way seemed to contradict the Great
>Compromise, and in response the ancient gods of nature and time
>inspired many of their number to rebel against their hidebound cult
>authorities, and heroquest thoroughly, aiming themselves to challenge
>the Red Goddess. The resultant battle of Castle Blue resulted in the
>acceptance of the Red Goddess into the world as a deity."
>Reading this it looks that one way to read it is that the older gods
>inspired their _followers_ (ie. non-gods) to greater heights and challenge
>the Red Goddess. So, I humbly put forward to the assembled priests of
>Knowledge and Truth, that it was *not* Humakt who fought Irrippi Ontor -
>but a Humakti; and similarly for the other Seven Mothers.
That is my feeling about Heroquesting in General. One does not encounter the Enemy God but someone walking in the HeroPath of that God. Normally the HeroQuestor cannot tell the difference. But Arkat met himself five times and worked it out. The God Learners plundered this Secret and spilt the beans.
However Yanafal (not Irrippi) is said to have met Humakt who was _summoned_ in his Dark State over the Altars of Dolebury at the Battle of the Four Arrows of Light. So it could be argued that Yanafal did met Humakt (the actual god here) here. BTW a question for Nick or Loren: Is there a new name for the Carmanian Captial? Dolebury sounds to me like it's full of hobbits on the unemployment benefit...
>As the matters directly surrounding the Red Goddess is still under review,
>I will not state preliminary findings as yet - but I believe that the 7
>mothers merely fought mortal representatives of their deities, and ones
>who had given the 7M a head start in heroquesting, rather than the deity
>itself.
hmm. Only Yanafal is stated to have fought Humakt. I know of no similar myth for the other Seven Mothers (Dee'zola fighting Arachne Solara? The Mind Boggles!). At the Battle of Castle Blue, the opposing Gods were said to be Orlanth, Elmal (not Yelm!), Vyran (from KoS), Carman, and Urox and YarGan the Abominable (from the Fortunate Succession). All these gods were worshipped by the People around the area and all had bones to pick with the Red Goddess. So it seems to me that these people, honoring the call of Queen Vyran of the Castle Blue, sent forth their best Heroes into battle. These were seen by the Lunars and others as being the Gods themselves. Some Dead Heroes also participated, namely Alakoring, because there was a loophole in the Cosmic Fabric.
Now although the Heroes around Lake Oronin participated, they were able to draw upon the reserves of all their fellow cultists everywhere. For when Orlanth was defeated, his cultists in Heortland, on the far side of inhospitable Dragon Pass, woke up with headaches when the Red Moon arose (KoS p200). So yes, I agree that the Gods that fought at the Castle Blue were mere mortals.
>This likewise gets around the problem of having the Gods manifest out of
>time at Castle Blue - after all, which version of them would manifest?
>Take a trollish example - KL at the start of time (very strong)? KL after
>Gbaji (much weaker)?
Kyger Litor did not manifest at the Castle Blue. You should treat Lunar and Orlanthi propoganda about the Red Goddess challenging all the Gods with copious amounts of Salt, IMHO. I think, for the sake of argument that if Kyger Litor had Manifested she would have manifested at her strength at the Time of the Battle.
>If an illuminated chaotic tried to use truestone would it let them?
>Would it let *any* illuminate? Would it burn them (cf chaotics) or just
>not let them use it (ie. it doesn't know if it should or not?)
My guess is that the Illuminate would be able to use the Truestone. He doesn't register as Chaotic by the Keen Senses of the Uroxi so how could a dumb piece of rock know? I suppose you could convince me by saying that it would be more intelligent than the Uroxi but I doubt the rest of the digest would agree...
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