Quick Malia follow-up.

From: MSmylie_at_aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:50:05 -0400


Hello all. A couple of minor notes on Malia ...

David Boatright writes:
>There may different versions of Humakt around Glorantha emphasizing
>different aspects of the God. Wether it's death, truth or honor.
>But changing Malia to a healing Goddess makes here the opposite to
>what she is every where else. Malia creates disease. Disease spreads
>death and corruption.

I think I'd only want to point out that at least within some RW mythologies and cult practices, there is a longstanding habit of combining "opposites" within a single deity, usually with an apotropaic function. Heracles, infamous and feared as the "Sacker of Cities", is also called upon paradoxically to defend them; eternally virgin Artemis is the patron goddess of childbirth and motherhood, and protector of wildife even as she is the hunter par excellance; Yahweh, the Creator, the Good God, is perfectly capable of destroying his creation with the Flood (as did the Sumerian greater gods), or of testing his followers with cruelty bordering on the malicious; Enki, God of Wisdom, knowledge and reason, is perfectly capable of getting drunk and giving away all of his powers; and, in the words of Walter Burkert on Apollo, "the god of healing is also the god of plague." I would hate to think that we would be adding a companion to the old adage "truth is stranger than fiction": "the Real World is always more complicated than a Fictional One"?

I would also want to make some quick observations about the perceived differences between Humakt's Death and Malia's Death. Since Humakt's killing of Grandfather Mortal is the mythological First Death, I suppose that it could be argued that his Death is the penultimate death and may be considered "necessary", as some have phrased it. However, I would point out that within the context of most Gloranthans' lives -- except, of course, for those of player characters and their associates and enemies -- Malia's Death is far more likely to play a major role. Sick and dying livestock; the diseases and ailments which claim the newborn, the young, the old, the infirm; heart attacks, strokes, etc., or perhaps more accurately their Gloranthan _equivalents_ (Creeping Chills, Brain Fever, Soul Waste, etc.) ... I suspect that your average Gloranthan is far more likely to die in one of those manners than the "quick and painless" death by sword, the speed and painlessness of that death being, IMO, mostly the result of the "roolz" -- it's pretty rare to have a PC hanging around at death's door with a punctured lung or a crushed limb or a crushed skull for hours or days or even weeks.  Indeed, PCs, with their (un)usually broad access to healing spells, rarely have to deal with the debilitating, long-term nature of physical injury. I have to admit that I have no idea why Humakt's Death should be portrayed as "clean", while Malia's Death leads to "corruption", unless corruption here is merely an indication of the length of time involved; and even in that case, they would seem to go hand in hand, Humakt's wound opening the door to Malia's gangrene and infection (hmm; in fact, I suppose that I would be willing to suggest the possibility of an obscure myth, in which Humakt realizes that he has brought a heavy burden upon himself in killing Granpappy Mortal, and realizes that he can't kill mortals fast enough, so he asks/forces Malia to help him fulfill his obligation in finding a way to bring death to more people, more quickly, more surely).

Indeed, Humakt's Death strikes me as being an unusual one to hold as paradigmatic, in that it is technically an act of _murder_, an act of Death that requires a conscious decision on the part of another individual, the person that strikes the death blow and lives to tell about it. I suspect that most of Humakt's victims would be more than willing to argue the "necessity" of their deaths. Malia's (IMO) more common form of death, while hardly greeted with open arms, and even if it might involve spirits, might be the more likely candidate for a "natural" form of death than the decidely "unnatural" act of someone splitting your head open with a two-handed sword.

Just some thoughts; Your Glorantha May Vary, as usual. Later, Mark


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