Fear of the Dark from SimonPhipp_at_aol.com on 1996-06-27 (Glorantha Digest Vol 02)

From: SimonPhipp_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 18:23:41 -0400

Ian Gorlick:
>Simon proposed that the fear powers of darkness come from Subere the Goddess
>of
>the Hell Dark, which is very scary. However, I think Subere is also the
>darkness
>of Wonderhome which was the Troll paradise, so she wouldn't necessarily be
>scary
>to them.

When you are terrified - what do you do? You close your eyes, where it is nice and dark and safe. This is the Womb of Darkness, where everything is nice and everyone is happy. This is like Wonderhome where everyone was happy, wrapped in the womb, able to eat, drink and couple to their heart's content. This is the Darkness of Xiola Umbar, Xentha, maybe Subere

However, Darkness is also terrifying. Don't forget that Death is a power of Darkness and was hidden away for safety's sake.

You can either take a general point of view and say that Darkness is dualistic, having a gentle, mild side and a harsh, terrifying side. However, the view that I subscribe to is that there are Dark terrifying deities and Dark gentle deities, their natures do not come from their Darkness background, but their personal nature. Otherwise, you get into the "all sun gods are the same" way of thinking.