This is pretty clear. On Earth, too, the attitudes of many cultures towards the march of history is not the same as the modern Western tendency to buy into eternal progress (I once had an argument with a man who claimed that modern education, science, and philosophy was the reason that we didn't still have terrible slaughters and cruelties like in the olden times. I started to talk about Pol Pot, the holocaust, Operation Phoenix, and he literally ran away.)
Anyway, here are some of my random thoughts on the Empires of old and new.
PERCEPTION OF HISTORY BY VARIOUS GLORANTHAN CULTURES *** LUNARS -- see it as cyclical, but the cycle appears to have an end.
ORLANTHI -- see it as a steady decline. In the old times men were stronger, women more fertile, gods walked among men. Nowadays things are worse. Nonetheless, the Orlanthi seem to be basically an optimistic folk. Evidently they take pride in the might of their ancestors, rather than bemoaning their modern degenerate state. They are very reactionary and hostile to change, because any change would naturally be bad. However, changes to Old Ways are acceptable, which would explain why the barbarians seem to spawn true civilizations from time to time -- like the Kingdom of Sartar. Of course, now that there has been such a Kingdom, all the Orlanthi yearn for its return ("Back to the Old Ways!" they shout, forgetting that the old ways were once new.)
DORADDI -- see it as episodic. Normally there is the savannah, the tribes, the Ancestors, the oases, the family, and the mother-in-law. Everything is fine as it can be. But sometimes Bad Things come and try to change everything, like the Artmali, the Six-Leggers, the Jungle, the Kresh, etc. Then we have to stop it, or all our world will be at risk. The negative-thinkers among the Doraddi surmise that someday one of these Bad Things will actually succeed in overwhelming the the world, and then the good old ways will be lost forever. No doubt that is what happened in Genertela, land of horror.
EAST ISLES -- all the world is a dream. There is no time, no sequentiality. (East Islanders are notorious for arriving late for scheduled events, and their calendar is one of the most slipshod in Glorantha.) All is an illusion. Things seem to progress, or to deteriorate, but they're really just changing, not getting worse or better. The only things that can _really_ happen are for the dream to turn into a nightmare, or into the full waking state. If either occurs, the dream will end forever.
KRALORELA -- the world is eternal and unchanging, though cyclic as well. However, we as individuals are capable of progression and perfection. If we hold together as a nation, then our individual progressions can gradually improve the entirety of the empire. But the fact that I am master of all crafts and own true enlightenment does not void the fact that my son must start from scratch to achieve the same.
Peter Metcalfe:
>The Gift Carriers only wiped out the Umathelan God Learners (who
>were the only ones to know the Forbidden Secret), I believe.
The Gift Carriers wiped out God Learners from Loskalm to Umathela, from Teleos to Jrustela. The Forbidden Secret was sprinked throughout the Middle Seas Empire. Just for your information. The Umathelans were the first to recognize them for what they were. To the rest, they seemed just otherworld random violence.
Sandy
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