>The Jrusteli were utterly wiped out and nobody even remembers much of what
>they did (c.f. Gift Carriers). It is true that some of the changes they
>imposed on Lightbringer cults are still in effect (perhaps pieces of the
>Issaries cult like Tradetalk), but I'm not sure if this is continuity --
>certainly there's no political or social continuity.
The Gift Carriers only wiped out the Umathelan God Learners (who were the only ones to know the Forbidden Secret), I believe. There's no record of the Gift Carriers from the Genertelan point of view (unless you consider farmstock god learners!). The continuity of the Modern Malkioni from the God Learners comes from Tanisor and Safelster IMO. These were under God Learner Rule when Seshnela was sunk. Safelster 'rebelled' and conquered Tanisor according to the Ralios, frex. Although they are said to have cleansed and purifed themselves of their God Learner ways, anybody who believes this is strongly encouraged to read 'Animal Farm'.
One can also cite Loskalm in this case. The description of how it revolted from God Learner Rule in Codex 2 is markedly spurious in that the troops involved in the incident are alleged to be foreign. Methinks it was a domestic revolution ousting an incompetent government (a la the Russian February Revolution) which was played up by Loskalmi Propogandists to backdate their 'rejection' of God Learner ways.
You can argue that the secrets of the God Learners were deliberately forgotten by the remants. In certain cases this is true in that the Modern (Orthodox) Malkioni do not traffic with the False and Pagan Gods or practice the Many-into-One magic known to the Zistorites (collective dreaming). It is my belief that some if not most of the higher magics that the God Learners did are both known and replicable to the Modern Malkioni but no longer practiced due to a perception that such a thing is evil, or a lack of resources or both.
>The EWF was utterly
>wiped out and nobody even remembers much of what they did (i.e. everybody
>forgot Draconic). Alakoring dismantled their social structures. What
>empires are you talking about? (I'm not informed enough on Kralorela but
>didn't they burn all the old books from about this time?)
I agree with you about the lack of continuity with the EWF, I wasn't speaking about them. The Kralori burning of the books was much earlier, before the Sunstop. I am claiming continuity for the God Learners (mentioned above), Dara Happa (which did resist the EWF), Mokato (which survived the closing by Renouncing their Empire), the People of the Elf Coasts and perhaps Fonrit.
>In most ways, Glorantha represents a steady decline (ignoring local ups).
>It started out and everything was wonderful -- nobody died. Then came the
>Darkness. This finally ended, but gods could no longer walk the earth. But
>there was cooperation between all the species. Then that ended. Then a
>couple empires spread their civilization across most of Glorantha. They
>were wiped out. The Lunars spread a mostly benign civilization, the
>Orlanthi become almost civilized. We know this ends and literacy is lost
>for a while! The long-term trend doesn't look good.
Considering the impact of the Great Darkness, I don't think that Glorantha's timeline can be described as a steady decline. The Hesiod progession of Ages whilst compelling in form has feet of clay IMO. As for the loss of literacy, it is my opinion that this was a localized side effect of the Argrathi for their imperfect use of Draconic magics. We are not told _if_ the lowlanders (aka the Hordes - KoS p47) also suffered the loss of literacy.
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