> Most of the other stuff in the conclusion was rubbish as well...
For those not in the know, Greg Stafford is well aware that there is plenty of rubbish in the Conclusion to "King of Sartar" -- he says he wrote it that way deliberately. Therefore, putting a great deal of weight on anything that's only found in that chapter would be a mistake, IMHO. OTOH, it's always *your* Glorantha.
> Firstly, the Devil reappears evry 600 years. This would make 1800 or
> therabouts the correct date, not 1677.
...until you notice that the date of the LBQ is given as "-150" in the timeline, which pushes us back. 450 (Arkat vs. Nysalor), 1050 (downfall of Jrustela), 1650...
OTOH, the Timeline is a suspect document. IMG, I feel inclined to date the end of Argrath's Saga to 1654 rather than 1725: saying that the Hero we've been waiting for since RQ2 has arrived at last, but none of your PCs are going to be alive when he starts doing anything interesting (as he'll rule for 100 years) seems inherently foolish to me!
> Secondly, Argrath and the Devil begins "Without the facade of the Red Goddess
> and the Lunar Empire, the true nature of the enemy was revealed when Wakboth,
> the God of the Ultimate End, came forth to rule humankind." This clearly
> happened after 1725 when the Moon fell...
I don't think that's "clear" at all. It depends on what you think is going on within the Shadowmoon Empire, Monster Empire, etc., and on how much weight you give this passage as a *historical* document. If those Empires no longer called themselves "Lunar" or worshipped the Red Goddess...
> Thirdly... I think that destroying the Moon broke the Compromise, since the
> Red Goddess was part of the Compromise, and let far worse things than the
> Lunar Empire in through the back door.
I *like* this suggestion!
> Fourthly, Argrath could not do the LBQ again to defeat the Devil, since he
> had already done it.
Just like Harmast Barefoot, really (who is *famous* for "doing it" twice).
> There is no evidence, that I see, of Sheng Seleris being made up of a number
> of people, nor of him being different at the end of the war than at the
> start. I think that Sheng Seleris incarnated the powers of the Red Emperor's
> shadow and became the Shadow Emperor.
I tend to agree. IMHO, it ought to be possible for a powerful individual to be "made" into the Red Emperor by the Council of Egi: this creates more interesting historical and political possibilities for the Lunar Empire. (Anyone else think the business with the "Proxies" under Reclusus is a smokescreen hiding a full-blown civil war?). But I will not say whether this is relevant to Sheng.
> I would say that when a Hero becomes an Aspect of a god and progresses to
> being a minor god, as happens in the Lunar Pantheon, for instance, the main
> god merely sheds that aspect so that it is worshipped alone (eg Yelm and
> Saggitus, The Red Goddess and Hon-Eel).
I think that's backwards: the Hero is adding something to the God, which wasn't there before. Prior to Saggitus, Yelmic archery wasn't so good. Prior to Hon-Eel, the Lunar Goddess' Earth connections weren't so strong. Or else, having heroes would seem to *weaken* the main deity.
What you're missing out is that the "Aspect of the God" which the Hero is now embodying was not necessarily known or recognised (or, indeed, extant) prior to the heroic actions which "revealed" it.
> I'm not sure what the Vadeli believe, but they are godless atheists as
> well and so are wrong.
The Vadeli say that whatever you say about your gods sounds truly wonderful, and they only *wish* they were worthy to worship your gods in the way you've told them about, but they're just poor humble Vadeli, whose mediocre ancestral way will have to suffice, because they weren't fortunate enough to be born into an amazing people like your own. They are almost the only (publicly) humble people of Glorantha, creepily so.
> Does anyone else believe that Light Sons playing the part of Dykene in the
> pageants in Balazar must dress up as a woman in direct contravention of their
> taboos, but are allowed to as long as they have a full and visible beard?
Why not? It's fun!
Yelmic marriage practices among the nobility IMG are similar to Roman political weddings, with knobs on. Middle-aged noble men tend to marry the barely-nubile daughters of their political allies. Of course, their sons face a shortage of women as a result. They can't marry the more attractive noblewomen, and Yelmic culture is big on sexual repression, and very down on marital infidelity, promiscuity, etc. So, what to do?
Well, with all those sexual hangups, added to the fact that in orthodox Yelmic areas women are kept locked indoors or under wraps, it gets to be quite hard for young Yelmic men even to find out what a woman *looks* like. Now, one place where women go, and where no man is allowed, is the sacred rituals of the Earth Goddesses (etc.), subject of fervid imaginings by the overheated youths. So, by dressing up as a woman and standing at the back of the crowd, in the shadows concealing his beard behind a veil and talking with a squeaky voice, a young Yelmic man might hope to spy on the faces and forms of the local women...
I'll admit to liberal borrowing from Aristophanes' "The Poet and the Women", and from Monty Python's Stoning scene in the Life of Brian.
> I am increasingly tempted to think both a) the Arkat the Deceiver cult is
> right, and that Arkat was actually nothing more than a guise of Nysalor
> himself, his own "good side" made manifest to fight his own "bad side", and
> that b) Argrath _was_ the Devil, and fought himself as well, and tricked the
> world into dooming itself.
I think there's something to be said for both these viewpoints. However, I don't think either of them is the "Whole Truth".
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