Thanks for the brief excerpt!
> Earth's Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Moslems agree (mostly) on
> certain things that don't occur to Western Genertelans. For instance,
> Malkioni don't have an Adversary, a spirit opposed to the Creator and
> actively tempting and destroying mortals.
No, that's what Gbaji was needed for, and Arkat as the Prophet of this revelation.
Note, however, that the Western name for "monster" is Krjalki, derived from Krjalk, the Betrayer. Now I am not sure Krjalk has a myth of betraying the Creator (or if he had, whether that was subsumed in the Unholy Trio myth), but the roots are there.
> Malkioni don't seem to have an eschatology, a tale of the end of the
> world, which is central to Christianity and Zoroastrianism and present
> in other Earth monotheistic religions.
I think that's because the world has already ended once, and what remains is kind of a purgatory on the way to Solace.
> Malkioni don't (that I can tell) have "angels", powerful supernatural
> beings who serve God.
These are hinted at, like Jingar the Messenger, who also appears among Malkion's descendants (within three generations or so), though.
> In fact, Malkionism is the most unEarthly religion I can find in
> Glorantha.
I agree: Malkionism seems quite areligious. Neither church structures nor saints really change a lot on the fact that Malkionism is the field test for a social philosophy rather than a religion. At least orthodox Malkionism, especially those which try to imitate or improve the Brithini way.
> It really doesn't have a cognate -- it's certainly
> different from any real monotheistic religion.
I agree with Paul Reilly's old parallel of Pythagorean philosophy as the closest match to Malkionism. Note that the Invisible God business and other significant monotheist traits of modern Malkionism are likely to be the result of the God Learners' quest for a God. If Monotheism doesn't fit the basis of Malkionism (the Kingdom of Logic, and impersonal forces), then that's because original Malkionism acknowledged a Creator, but didn't exactly worship him. They revered Malkion the Prophet, and likely Hrestol as well, but again I'm not so sure that this was worship. Although, infected by the Seshnegi earth cult, they might have in the 1st Age.
Sandy, are you listening in? If so, what do you think of your sorcery saints? Were these master disciples of Zzabur, or non-Brithini Malkioni wizards of note?
One reason I liked the text so much is its direct adaptability to Glorantha:
> He has given the entire control of this
> world for ten thousand hears to the bright
> spirit, Melek Taos (*), and Him, therefore, we *: read Nysalor
> worship. Moslems and Christians (*) are wrongly *: read Malkioni (1)
> taught that he whom we call Melek Taos (*) is *: Nysalor again
> the spirit of evil. We know that this is
> not true. He is the spirit of power and
> ruler of this world. At the end of the ten
> thousand years (*) of his reign -- of which we *: Ten Ages? (2)
> are now in the third thousand (*) -- he will *: Age
> reenter paradise (*) as the chief of the Seven *: Solace??
> Bright Spirits, and all his true worshippers
> will enter paradise with him.
(1) Actually: Rokari and Hrestoli
(2) Ten Ages would be a nice Solar concept.
Overall, this sounds to me very much like a Dara Happan cult of Nysalor, influenced by the Lunars, but not as fixed on the Red Goddess as the state cults of illumination.
Alternatively, this could be a text of a hypothetical Arkat Illuminate movement in Ralios.
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