(From an early Third Age fragment, found in Snakepipe Hollow; written in Tarshite on parchment)
...tells of their Red Moon Goddess, who can be seen from the highest ridges here. I ask of her appearance, which changes every day. "Is this not a sign of weakness? Only one day in seven are her magics at their full strength; surely her enemies will know when she is weakest."
"Not so", claims Shankla Bhur. "This is but an illusion; for she is
mistress of illusions. When she shines full, her attention is fully on
the world; but when she is dark, then she contemplates greater truths,
her power growing wane by wane."
"Even so" respond I, "surely the timing of her phases can be
discerned by all her enemies? Would they not sieze the moment when her
attention is upon the mortal world, but in another, rendering her
worshippers powerless?"
He leans forward, whispering softly, as if he would not have the others hear. "The barbarians think this, and we do not hurry much to correct their misconceptions. But the Goddess has ways, and ways."
I grow irritated, and would soon leave his bed, for I can see he is a fool or worse. Then he says to me, "They even think that the Goddess shines differently in different lands; that the Day of Darkness falls on one day in Sartar and another in Carmania. Yet it is not so; how should this be? She is dark at once all over the world, and full all at one time also. She shows the same face at the same time in all her worldly realms save one."
"One?" I say, then say "Which one?" I have had too much of this
hearty vintage, and I cannot think; yet he has had more. I fear that he
will sleep, but he rouses for a moment more.
"The Heartland", he mumbles. "She shines her fullest there, in the
lands which gave her birth..."
This makes me think, as he falls asleep beside me. How could the
moon be so? That all men would see her as a crescent at the same time?
I go to my hip-sack and fetch an apple. No matter how I turn it, I
cannot match it to Agristain's description; the shadows on the apple
change as I turn it before the candle. Surely Orlanth's Compromise
would be violated...
- ---
þ CMPQwk #1.42þ UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #364
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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