But I think that Nick Brooke has stumbled into the truth. Just as the Puzzle Canal is a Nysalor Riddle, so the Lunar Empire is nothing more or less than a Nysalor Riddle, the biggest of them all! My proposal is that "Lunar bureaucracy" be a skill, and that as one rises in the skill the chance of illumination becomes greater (the connection with SAN rolls in CoC should be obvious). High level bureaucrats in the Empire are most likely to suffer from one or more of four particular types of insanity: a relentless optimism no matter the real circumstances, a belief that the most ridiculous policies imaginable will have good results, an obsessive compulsion to do the same thing over and over again no matter what is happening, or a dull, placid torpor in the face of any form of chaos (any resemblance of these personality types to RW political types such as Reagan, Clinton, Thatcher, Major, and c. is entirely in the mind of the beholder, and this Lunar bureaucrat will take a fence -- or anything else -- if given a chance).
The truth is that the center of the Lunar Empire is a void -- Nothing at all. And Argrath eventually comes to understand what Arkat first learned: the answer to the riddle of "How do you fight Nothing?" It is of course, "Be willing to do Anything!"
But what if it really is "all" illusion? (with apologies to James Blish) --
EXORCISM The sight was overwhelming, and the sound more so.
WE, PRIESTS OF MALKION, AND FOLLOWERS OF ROKAR, DO COMMAND YOU, MOST FOUL SPIRITS WHO DO STIR UP THESE CLOUDS, THAT YOU DEPART FROM THEM, AND DISPERSE YOURSELVES INTO WILD AND UNTILLED PLACES, THAT YOU MAY NO LONGER BE ABLE TO HARM MEN OR ANIMALS OR FRUITS OR HERBS, OR WHATSOEVER IS DESIGNED FOR HUMAN USE: AND THOU GREAT NOTHING, THOU LUSTFUL AND STUPID ONE, DUNG-COVERED GOAT, THOU SOOTY SPIRIT FROM BELOW, WE CAST THEE DOWN, SORE-RIDDEN GOAT, INTO THE INFERNAL KITCHEN . . . As the chant began to build, waves of pure noise assailed the monks from all directions. Appalled, they watched the great object in the sky flicker, and they watched misty shapes rise from the ground to meet it. Even worse, all the ground around them began to quiver and crack, as winds mounted and the earth shook. The stream nearby began to overflow its banks, and fires burst forth on the horizon.
The party began to run, clambering up the hillside to avoid the turmoil below. Not all of them made it.
What followed seemed to take no time at all, or an age. No one could tell. The sound built to a crescendo of cracking, grinding, and screaming. As the final words rang out: WE SAY UNTO YOU, CREATURE OF PERDITION: DEPART, DEPART, DEPART! the crimson light in the sky vanished, and with it all the things that had surrounded it. A pure white light appeared in the sky, and the survivors of the party fell on their face in awe and wonder at the beauty of this new object. It was only then that they noticed the sudden quiet that had fallen on the ruined land.
After healing their wounds and gathering the survivors together, the small band remaining camped for the night on the side of the mountain, high enough to avoid danger, but still overlooking the devastation below.
Their leader, a gaunt man with the triangle embossed on his robe in stripes of gold, sighed and said, "Who would have thought that the exorcism would have such vast results: the evil must have been very deep."
The youngest of the men, whose beard had barely begun to grow, look up with a humble expression, and said, "Sire, I do not yet understand. How could something that was done so far away from here have this effect? And why did they have to go so far away? And is Theoblanc dead at last?"
The leader replied, sternly, "The idea that a great civilization could be built on such principles of evil was an illusion, intended to divert us from the Truth of the Cosmic Creator. Theoblanc the Ever-Living and the other great men of the Holy Church of Rokar came to understand what had to be done. Finally, they understood the vision of the Prophet Notslor. I am sure that they were taken directly to Solace after they ended their great work."
"But what was it that we saw? And how did we see it? To my eyes it seemed
that vast shapes arose from the ground and rose to the moon as the sounds of
the chant came to our ears. How could we have heard what they said, they were
thousands of miles away?"
"The sight, of course, came from our magics; the sound must have been reflected
both the strength of the evil and the strength of Holy Saint Rokar."
"Where did the white moon appear from, then?"
"It must have been the true moon, hidden behind the glare of red."
"And where did the red moon go? It had been so long there, and I have heard
tales of the strange creatures and things that were upon it or came forth from
it."
"That Moon and all that was on it or came from it was itself an illusion, and
the monsters, creations of evil fantasy. As Theoblanc and the Holy Men chanted,
so the veil of illusion was stripped away, and all the chaotic monsters that
afflicted the Earth were drawn up to the center of the illusion, and vanished
with it. It was Nothing in the end, and it returned to Nothing. Once again our
people have defeated the evil of Gbaji. "
"And what happened here?"
"All the monster men that assailed Seshnela must have somehow been part of the
same illusion, and vanished with it. But the corruption had gone deep. It seems
that there was little in the land that had not been touched by it, and I expect
that the wounds on our bodies reflected our own impurities. But the wounds of
the land can be healed through faith as our own wounds have been.
Nothing is very strong, but it was revealed to be Nothing at last. Now we can build the new land, the land of Law, in which krjalki, and chaos, and the false Gods have no place."
With these words, the group recited the creed of their faith, and fell into a sleep of weariness so great that they did not even set a guard, sure that the evil in their world was gone, and that somehow the white orb on the Eastern horizon was a token of the New world in which they would resume their work on The End
Hmm, it occurs to me that they might have exorcised Gbaji, The God Learners, and the EWF too!
Jim Chapin
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #431
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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