> Anyway it seems to me that the God Learner secret is tied in some way to
> Illumination. Either the GL's were Illuminated, or at least understood
> what Illumination was.
Yep, almost certainly the GLs profited by what secrets they stole from the Arkat Cult, though I've always held the opinion these had more to do with the secrets of HeroQuesting than those of Illumination, which was after all the most secret power of the Arkati. But they had been successfully God Learning for many, many years before this. (NB: IMHO most Gloranthans today don't know the Arkati were Illuminates; they don't even know that Arkat was! But if the God Learners knew, surely they'd have used this in their Just War propaganda against the Dark Empire, given the context of that fight. We have no hint that they did so ... or that the Arkati accused *them* of being Illuminates. You'd think something would have come through in our sources, if they knew about the Arkati Secret or they were Illuminated themselves...)
OK, if it suits your Glorantha there's no reason why the God Learners shouldn't have been *another* Illuminated Empire, like Nysalor's in the First Age and the Lunars' in the Third. And, hey, why not say Errinorru was Illuminated, too. And the EWF. And... (yawn)
My own take on this is that we know about the "RuneQuest Sight", the alleged special power of the God Learners (in the Glorantha Book, first in the World of Glorantha boxed set). This was unique, distinctive, unmatched before or since, and not described as having anything to do with Illumination. So, while some individual God Learners may have been Illuminated (maybe including their founders, or their corrupters, or the best or worst of them), I don't think "they" were Illuminates (to the same extent that the leaders of the Bright Empire or Lunar Empire were). They had something *else*.
Of course, living a few centuries after the Chaos Wars vs. Nysalor's Bright Empire makes it pretty likely the GLs had a theory -- most likely lots of theories -- about what Illumination was. But given that the Path of Illumination is one of those mystical, unquantifiable, undefinable things we know the GLs had problems with (cf. their Kralori and Draconic experiences), I doubt they "understood" it. They may have thought they did, but then that was always their problem...
> While they were able to manipulate the Heroplane, they really didn't
> understand the significance or power of what they were dealing with.
But if they'd been Illuminated, they probably would have, is my take on this. They were messing around with the Arkati (Illuminated) secrets of HeroQuesting, but without the Arkati (Illuminated) understanding of what you can and can't get up to on the Hero Plane. Hence the crash...
> "These constructions may not be real, but it doesn't mean they don't
> have power."
That's an excellent statement of one God Learner axiom, IMHO. Thanks!
> Didn't someone on this list mention that the God Learners started out
> as as students of textual criticism?
My own theory, so you can take it or leave it. I had their first Great Work be the "re-discovery" of the "original" form of Malkionism (and hence invent the modern "Cult of the Invisible God") through textual criticism and reduction of commonly accepted Western scriptures. Something like those early Church Councils where the books of the Bible were agreed, only with more mythology and heroquesting chrome thrown in...
> Sounds like an interesting theme for a LARP: Have some kind of big
> event in Pavis, with half the players being high level cult members,
> and the other half "their" Allied Spirits...
I read a hilarious Australian tournament scenario once where all the players are the Awakened mounts of Praxian Rune Levels. The rhino and ostrich stick in my mind, not to mention Dalai the High Llama...
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