>So was Orlanth a real person? Perhaps the founder of the Theyalan way of
>life? Did his feet, in ancient times, walk upon Sartar's green and
>pleasant land? Who can say. Did he slay Yelm? Historicaly, who can say.
>Mythologicaly - you bet.
and
>The what about actions by Men? by Heroes? If a man can become a god,
>the acts of men become the acts of gods. Myth is not just a covenient
>fiction, else heroquests would have no power.
This is euhemerization again, defined as the idea that the legends of supernatural beings are really "mythologized" acts of historical human beings. I have little use for it.
(The next paragraph may offend people who are devoutly religious. Fair warning.)
This is (again) NOT EARTH! In Glorantha, why can't there really be gods? I feel that Simon is using the fact that supernatural beings don't really exist here, in the real world, to devalue their "existence" in the fantasy world of Glorantha.
We know that gods exist in "present day" (pre-Hero Wars) Glorantha. They show up. People talk to them. Heck *my characters* have spoken to some pretty significant gods. Why shouldn't they have existed before?
Joerg Baumgartner
>Carl Fink delurked with the
Delurked? I haven't posted much lately, but I would have hoped you'd remember me, Joerg. <pouts>.
>Well, in Glorantha the cultures change to match the stories told
>(or rather quested), but there is strong evidence that religious
>beliefs on Glorantha did in fact change dramatically. I forward the
>unpopular example of the God Learners, the very ones who found the
>Monomyth necessary to deal with all the changed myths they found to
>produce the ur-myth.
I never said that religious practices didn't change, or that myth stories *as told* didn't change. I said that they're based on "real" events, not just human social needs.
(Another warning to the devout.)
I'm no Marxist, but religion in the real world seems to follow his dictum -- it exists to support the current social order, and changes to match when the social order changes.
One of the charms of Glorantha, IMO, is precisely that this doesn't have to be so. I like the fact that in Glorantha, the Uz (for instance) are *really* the way they are because of supernatural influences, not just because they happen to have fallen into that lifestyle.
Another point -- killing "The God of the Silver Feet" (identified by Sandy as Issaries) cut off all communications in Fronela. SInce nobody was expecting this but a tiny cabal, it wasn't a "belief effect". Issaries was *real* and a personification of communication.
I assume the area was limited because of the Compromise=Arachne Solara's Web, which acts to prevent fundamental change to the nature of Glorantha.
>This myth comes in all local variations and sizes. (Note that the acting
>god starts with a worship ceremony... whom does he worship? Who they in
>turn?)
That's in _Elder Secrets_. The primal gods, hard to understand for mortals, like Maker and Grower. Who says Maker and Grower worshipped anyone?
>Actually, a new myth around Korasting (Mother of Many... today that title
>sounds almost like a taunt, considering the trollkin multiple birth) was
>made. Not too different from Tanien or Zistor, both of which left their
>consequences in myth and reality (the Firebergs and the Machine Ruin).
Yes, a new myth. My point was that it wasn't *retroactive*. Nysalor changed Korasting-then, but the myth of Troll creation didn't retroactively include her maiming. The myth of the maiming has it happening *during Time*, and is (as I've been saying) based on a real event, not something people just made up.
That is, it's a *new* myth. Even Gbaji couldn't change the *original* myth.
I apologize for the length of this post.
- --
Assistant Sysop, GEnie's First and Fourth Science Fiction RoundTables
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