Smiths, etc.

From: MSmylie_at_aol.com
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 15:33:11 -0400


Hello all, feel like I'm playing catch-up here.

First off, on Smiths and Gustbran -- David Dunham wrote:

>Sorcerers are right out for Orlanthi, and the entry for "Gustbran the
>Smith" in King of Sartar (p.51) mentions no aspect other than redsmith.
>(I'm not denying he has other aspects, but I do believe 85%+ of all
>Orlanthi smiths worship Gustbran.)

and the other David (Cake Rune) added:

>IMO true (magical) smiths are enchanters. But anybody can be an
>enchanter, its a skill known by all magicians. Think of learning divine
>enchant spells as learning Gustbrans secret enchanting ways. Its possible
>they may think of Gustbran as the god who mastered the forge and bound it
>to service.

I agree completely that Orlanthi smiths would not be sorcerors; I would be inclined to think of them as shaman variants. I would also agree that most Orlanthi smiths give some sort of homage to Gustbran, but I'm not entirely sure "which" Gustbran this would be. I think of Gustbran as essentially one of the Low Fires (indeed, the GoG Prosopaedia describes him/it as "the bonfire", with "the smith" seemingly a secondary role), and really aside from "Enhance Gustbran" I'm not really sure what kind of divine magic would be available from a Gustbran Lowfire cult (maybe Command Salamander? Sorry, I haven't had a chance to look at David Dunham's Gustbran cult yet, I'll visit the web page ASAP). That Gustbran is now seen amongst the Orlanthi as a "Smith" God is a given, but IMO that's the result of a Culture Hero's intervention _if_ more powerful forms of metal-working spells or enchantments were available from the cult -- though personally, I think smiths worship Gustbran for better control of fires and forges, and that's about it, and Enchant spells should be the province of a (quasi-shamanic) Culture Hero Enchanter. I guess what I'm arguing is that Gustbran the Enchanter is not the same God as Gustbran the Low Fire (though I suppose Gustbran the Enchanter could be Gustbran of the Forge while Gustbran the Low Fire would be Gustbran the Bonfire; dunno, I'll mull that one over).

On other topics, Carl Fink wrote:

>I have no problem with Theyalans thinking Orlanth slew Yelm,
>while Dara Happans think Rebellus Terminus slew Murharzarm... I have
>a problem with Joe Heroquester changing the story so that the Sun was
>a female principle, and instead of dying was seduced and impregnated.

I'd heartily second Peter Metcalfe's point that the Sun itself is a genderless object; indeed, much of Sun mythology seems aimed at engendering the Sun as a "masculine principle" (perhaps implying that at some point it was a "feminine principle"?), and that the Sun may have manifested as "male" doesn't presuppose that it may not manifest as "female" (particularly in the case of a Lesser Sun?). The myth works just as well if you say that "Orlanth slew the _Empress_", or even if you skewed it a bit and said Orlanth raped the Empress, and She descended to the Underworld in Anger, and did not return until he had offered himself up for Judgment (that even allows some echo of the Unholy Trio, come to think of it). Similar cosmological event-pattern.

Peter Metcalfe and I seem to be beating a dead horse; he wrote:

>I'm saying that it was linear back then which is a *seperate*
>question of how close the Godplane was to the Inner World.

Actually, I'm _agreeing_ that it was linear; I just think that the God Time is both linear _and_ multiple, while linear time is linear and singular. The Rashomon effect in _history_ is the result of interpretation; the Rashomon effect in the God Time/God Plane is the result of actual multiplicity.

I liked Sandy's theory that "if time travel takes place in Glorantha, it can _only_ occur between entire Ages, because at the end of each Age, the world was reborn anew, and Time, in effect, restarted." Cool. Indeed, IMO "time travel" is kind of the wrong way to think of it; I would still argue that a HeroQuester is not travelling back in time (though I suppose that's how it might _appear_ to the Quester), but bringing the past into the present; the more I think about it, this also strikes me as the operation occuring even in God Time/God Plane HeroQuests.

Just some thoughts,
Mark


End of Glorantha Digest V2 #666


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