KOW / Gods travelling

From: Aden Steinke <Aden_Steinke_at_uow.edu.au>
Date: 17 May 1996 16:41:01 +1000


Nick (the one with a small water rune attached) commented

>This brought to mind a minor point, but I'll mention it anyway: one of the
>things I find when writing about Glorantha is that slapping the names of
known
>cults onto what ought to be strange foreign phenomena tends to 'label' them
>with all kinds of unwanted associations. The further I get from Dragon Pass
and
>Prax,the less I expect to find similarly-named deities, similar cult
practices,
>etc. Sometimes this feels like "wimping out", but whatever...).

{snip}

>I agree that in a very real sense they are worshippers of the gods of war --
>that their battalions get power from the same deity, rune, power source (or
>whatever) as the Cults of Humakt (etc.) -- but I don't think they "ARE
>Humakti". Their ethos and ideology and obligations are those of the Kingdom
and
>their own (subcult, tradition, regiment, faction): I don't feel these should
be
>"adapted" versions of cults which are well-known elsewhere.
>
>Of course, if you like the God Learned monomythical Glorantha of World-Wide
One
>And Only True Cult Writeups (Accept No Substitute!), your outlook will
differ.
>For my part, I don't have much time for this.

If however, you take the view that the gods are more than somewhat constrained / defined by their worshippers (and particularly hero questers) then ethos / ideology / and cultic obligations would have sufficient consistency across Glorantha that a Humakti is a Humakti even if social structures like swords / priest lieutenants / boss cockies / lord high executioner may differ from place to place. The need for the worshipper to be to at least some extent an avatar of their god would compel this, it is not that the more distant worshipper should be looked at as an adaptation of the GL writeup, but the cult in Glorantha is tied to the relevant God in a manner without historical RW parallel in terms of feedback (untill the recent telecommunication equipped cults like the scientologists).

So you would be able to find much commonality, certainly more so than on earth where, for example, 'Catholic' meant many things in terms of doctrine in different places, not just little issues like the shape of the tonsure.

Aden


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