Despite the Closing of the Oceans and the Curse of the Gift Carriers, it = seems that many of my scholars of things Gloranthan seem compelled to = repeat the God Learners folly by seeking "the truth beyond the myth" = with regards to various muttered prophecies regarding the Fourth Age of = Time.
Fellow scholars, arguments about what myth-system will win the hero wars =
are ludicrous. Neither myth-system "won" in any objective (and by that =
term I mean from a perspective outside of any mythic system) sort of =
evaluation - assuming that it is even possible for there to be any =
"objective" evaluation of the myraid myth-systems of Glorantha, which =
there is not.
An analogy might be made to language games as per Eco, Peirce and =
Wittgenstein. The Orlanthi myth-language has its own formal structure = and "things external" to the myth-language must be "pigeon-holed" into = it. Same thing is true of the Lunar myth-structure. It's sort of like =translating another language into English or how the Anglo-American = common law system copes with the disputes arising from new technologies. =
As we all know, the pigeon-hole that the Orlanthi interpret the Lunars = into their "subtle chaos" classification, which I believe was a creation = of that most masterful expander of myth-language Harmast the = Bare-Footed. The Lunar myth-language interprets other mythos into its = own messianic pigeon-holes. Hence the famed Lunar missionary Nikolai of = Brokius is subjectively correct (in the sense that it is an adequate = translation into Lunar myth-language) in interpreting the revelatory Zin = Letters, as is Broyan of Curley in translating it into an Orlanthi = myth-language (although it seems the myth-language of the Zin Letters is = quite derivative of Orlanthi and so such a translation is not much of a = stretch), despite that when these translations are then translated into = my own Quivini-Sartarite myth-language, both seem to be completely = contradictory. If all three of us attempted to convey our respective = myth-language translations to a sage of Sog City, said sage would no = doubt be utterly confused and question whether we are even interpreting = the same empirical source.
That individuals interpret Glorantha through the lens of these =
mythic-language games is, of course, merely a restatement of the =
obvious. The danger arises when individuals, in their hubris, seek the =
"objective truth" of Glorantha and seek to rewrite the mythic-languages =
so that Elmal and Yelmalio and Yelm and Ehilm are identical. Or worse, =
seek to create an unholy synthesis of the Orlanthi mythic-language and =
the Dara Happan. Or seek to force the mythic-language of the Quivini =
Orlanthi upon all those who recognize a god they call Orlanth. Down =
that path lies the terrors of the Second Age and the End of Glorantha.
With trepidation and much warning,
Jeff Richard
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #372
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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