Nor are we meant to. A world where there is one truth is a world with one culture.
>Foolishly, I thought that Glorantha was a magical place where the gods
>existed before Time and did many deeds there, only to be bound into relative
>inactivity by the Compromise.
That is still true. For most Orlanthi. And while other peoples interpretations of the situation are different, the observed facts (except on heroquests) are not. Some people may not call them gods, may not have heard of the same gods, and may not think them worthy of reverence. But they do agree that around 1600 years ago, the sun returned after a period of darkness and chaos, for example. They have different ideas of why, but wouldn't you expect them too?
>However, it becomes obvious to me that in Glorantha, the gods are nothing
>more than glorified people or extensions of cultural conciousness.
Clearly we must help our poor friend Simon, who has fallen into God Learnerism through despair. The gods are glorified people. And extensions of cultural consciousness. And manifestations of the powers of the universe. And vast spirits. And manifestations of the divine.
> Clearly
>the Brithini were right after all and every god is a mad sorcerer who broke
>the rules and did terrible things to other people.
>
Once you start believing that, you end up becoming a mad sorcerer who breaks the rules and does terrible things. Arkats dictum and all that.
Anyway, of course, the Brithini are probably just as right as the Orlanthi or Dara Happans are. To have it any other way would ruin a lot of what I think is important about Glorantha. After all, if the Orlanthi are right and everybody else is wrong, is there any point in playing any body else? And they can't all be literally correct, so they must all be correct in some slightly looser way.
>However, once you begin to argue that the Spike did not appear in Dara Happan
>myths or that the Great Compromise was not known, then things get a little
>silly.
Why? The Dara Happans were nowhere near the Spike. They know of it now, and have known of it for a long time (they learnt of it around the time of the first council). They have lots of similar concepts in their myths, though. And they have nothing that says it doesn't exist, either - they have very few myths about what happens outside Dara Happa. They do happen to think Dara Happa is the centre of the universe, but who cares?
And their myths don't mention the Great Compromise. Because they have a different conception of the whole story. But why does it matter?
>The Dara Happans are a very inward-looking people who do not like
>ideas from outside.
True enough.
And then you go on to give a perfecty reasonable rationalisation of why
things might be the way Theyalans think they are, and the Dara Happans
still believe otherwise. Which is fine. Just understand that you can just
as easily give a similar explanation of why the Dara Happans are right, and
the Theyalans still believe their rubbish, or why the Brithini are right,
or the Doraddi, or whatever. They are all right from their point of view.
Now, I don't think the Spike wasn't there just because the Dara Happans didn't know about it. But if someone is going on a Dara Happan heroquest back into the Godtime (which, frankly, is the only time I can think of when all this stuff matters) they won't go to the Spike. Where is the problem?
> The Dara Happans are so
>arrogant and self-centered that their mythologies cannot always be taken as
>completely accurate.
>
Sure. They are wildly inaccurate, in at least the version we have - we have only the Yelmic point of view, which gives only a very limited view of the several other myth cycles of the area - the Lunar, avian, Lodrilite, earth, and several other celestial bodies all have their own myths. The Orlanthi are similarly inaccurate. But the Dara Happans don't mention the Spike, so what? They think Yelms court was at Yuthubars, the city in the sky, which they think is directly overhead from the Footstool in Raibanth. Well, it looks overhead from where they are, and if a Yelmic godtime heroquester flew straight up from the Footstool he'd get there. If a Theyalan godtime heroquester went straight up from the bottom of the spike, they would probably end up in much the same place. Why is this such a disaster? The heroplane/ godplane has never obeyed simple physical laws.
>(Throws his hands up in disgust and gives up)
Give up believing that all the theyalan mythology is literally true. If you do that, you do end up with an A D & D world, where the gods are big guys you can just beat up on. You also end up with a world where many of the things we value about Glorantha (like its enormous cultural diversity) cease to matter, because when you get right down to it, someone is right and someone is wrong.
Cheers
David
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