I will not argue with all the cultural points of view presented with great patiennce, detail and clarity by all protagonists (as I clearly lack the culture to do so), but I will argue instead from a metaphysical Point of View.
At the start, Glorantha was clearly defined by the Runes. All was sharp and contrasted, perfectly built. Then the Runes were somehow "transfered to the gods", and so were "broken in parts", copied, diluted. It took a lot of the Runes' energy to complexify the world that way. And then with the Compromise, the same "power" was transferred to the mortals, who disposed of the only decisionnary power. Again, the complexification was heavily payed in terms of power.
All of this marks the trend of entropy, as is the case in the real world, in a Big Bang Theory where simple but powerful structures were present in the beginning, but steadily complexified loosing their power. It took a lot of energy to create complexity, but the initial energy is now present "only" in the scatterred suns. There is no going back, the process is not reversible. It seems to me that the second Law of thermodynamics is truly in effect in Glorantha.
Evry time you use magic of effect a permanent change, you burn power. The power is transferred into the change, but can never be recovered. You have augmented complexity at the cost of Power, but this is irreversible.
Moreover, the Runes were the primal structures of Glorantha, extracting it from Chaos. But Chaos has been entering the world now and then, and the part of it which entered the world was never ejected. Chaos taint can never be removed. And as the devil was devoured by Arachne Solara, it was not destroyed, it was integrated into the world, and fixed here by the Compromise. It was only transformed so that it was no longuer immediately menacing. It took all the energy of the Gods to prevent Chaos from destroying the world. So Order was restored, but entropy still won, as the gods, exhausted and knowing that their very touch could start the process again, had to leave all "future" actions to the mortal races.
Every time Order is restored over chaos, it takes more energy, simply because the Runes are steadily losing their power as Chaos seeps into the world. The trend is quite clear to me. This is for example why the Lunar Empire is corrupt at its heart before having achieved true greatness.
This is why using chaos is so bad. When you use it, you automatically make it stronger. And you irrevocably destroy a part of the world... Illumination is not bad in itself, as it permits to see this vision of Chaos as not evil in itself. But the only good Illuminate is a contemplative (or a dead) one. Every active Illuminate, even with "good intentions" is ultimately responsible for letting Chaos enter the world and therefore eventually destroying it.
I see the future of Glorantha as truly hopeless. Two possibilities comme to mind:
Live truly well in this end of the third age, my friends, for doom, whether swift red death or long gray agony, is ineluctable...
One last argument: Dragonewts are said to try to reach perfection through cycles, each being greater than the one before. But is it not said that, for them, TIME RUNS BACKWARD...
Philippe
(Philippe Krait, pkrait_at_mail.micronet.fr)
____________________ ***************************************
/___ _________ ___/\ * Le Chant des Cendres nous reunit, *
\__/ /\_______/ /\__\/ * Forgeons les armes de la vie, *
/ /_/__ / / / * Boutons le Dragon hors d'ici... *
/____ /\ / / / * *
\___/ / / / / / * Clepsydre Dragon *
____/ / / /_/ / * -==(UDIC)==- *
/_____/ / \_\/ * *
\_____\/ ***************************************
------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #332
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
Powered by hypermail