God Learners, the nature of Glorantha, and a short anecdote

From: Carl Fink <carlf_at_panix.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 19:17:05 -0400


Nils Weinander <niwe_at_ein.ericsson.se>:

>I'm a fool for entering this debate, again.
>
>Simon Phipp:
>>Because Glorantha is not like that! I am sorry, but I can't accept such
>>earth-dominated arguments as I have heard here. You can argue that the gods
>>are all manifestations of one or two principles until you are blue in the
>>face and I can argue otherwise until I collapse and we will never agree.
>
>Simon, you are not alone in that opinion. I'm in your camp.
>
>>(Throws his hands up in disgust and gives up)
>
>Don't.

No, don't.

If there was no "real" Godtime, if the mythoi exist *only* because people made them up . . . then Glorantha is stupid and futile. Fortunately that isn't the case.

Clearly no human understands fully the nature and history of Glorantha. However, I maintain that there is a meaningful answer to the question: "Did Orlanth really kill the Sun God and bring on the Darkness?"

I hate, hate, hate Berkeleyism.

michael.raaterova.7033_at_student.uu.se (Michael Raaterova):

>It Is True As Long As You Believe It Is.
>
>It explains why illuminates are mad. It explains why ordinary people are
>right. It explains why the Godlearners were wrong. It may even *be* the
>Godlearner Secret.

The God Learners were *morally* wrong, but they were not incorrect. Really.

And if your first sentence is true, all is futile, all is chaos.

dunham_at_pensee.com (David Dunham):

>A common fallacy. The God Learners interpretation was over-simplistic, but
>it did work. It worked very well.

Interesting analogy deleted, but I like it. I'll add that by the time of the Second Age's ending, very few real "God Learners" were still around. The culture had become very decadent, and even the leaders of the various empires had largely forgotten the secrets that had brought them to power.

Their failing was *moral*, not intellectual.

I've always wanted to run a game in which one of the Outer Atomic Explorers, having become trapped in the Void, is sucked back into the Inner World by some horrid chaos magician's summoning. He would join with the PCs to destroy the vile son of slime -- the God Learners hated Chaos as much as anyone.

. . . and then Solara would react. He knows the Secret, you see. The players find themselves forced, subtly or overtly, but inevitably, to become the Gift Carriers of the Sending Gods and destroy this person, who they like and sympathize with.

Anecdote: at a convention years ago, Sandy Petersen told me and several others the God Learner Secret, reserving it only from our one player whose ambition in life was to learn and replicate the God Learner powers.

Ken Rolston: "That's the cruelest thing I've ever seen. I love it!" - --

Dueling Modems, Inc.                    http://www.sfrt.com/sfrt/
"As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from government intrusion."

Powered by hypermail