Orlanth and Ragnaglar

From: Jeff Richard <jrichard_at_cnw.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 10:55:29 -0700


Nick Brooke wrote regarding the Red Goddess' philosophical acceptance of =

the existence of chaos:

>It's hard=20

>to see why Orlanthi don't react better to this: after all, their =
god=20

>is famous for making Horrible Mistakes and trying to clear them up =

>afterwards, while his own brother's experiments with Chaos brought =

>Wakboth the Devil (Orlanth's nephew, let's remember) into the =
world.

     [fancy chart deleted]

>Quite a pedigree, eh? The gods of violence, madness, rape, evil, =
and=20
>barbarism all closely inter-related: somehow, I'm not surprised.
    =20
Obviously Nick is still wearing his Lunar professor of comparative = religions hat.
For the Orlanthi, kinstrife is perhaps the core of all tragedy and = disaster. The
Sword and Helmet Saga, the Lismelder/Malan Saga, Orlanth/Ragnaglar = myths,=20
and the Orlanth/Daga myths all contain kinstrife as the motive force for = the
ensuing tragedies.

In traditional Heortling saga cycles, I suspect that the killing of the = Sun is NOT
considered to be the cause of the Greater Darkness and the age of = misery. =20
Rather, I suspect that the Killing of the Sun heralds a the Storm Age = cycle=20
when Orlanth and his household establish themselves as the rightful = rulers of=20
Glorantha. Only once Orlanth is established as King of the Gods does = the=20
Ragnaglar Cycle begin. =20

The Orlanthi, IMO, tend to believe that the greatest threats do not come from the outside, but from within the greater community. This contrasts rather nicely with the Dara Happan cultural conceit that it is outsiders = that
ultimately threaten the "good community".=20

Thus, the Ragnaglar Cycle achieves its cultural power amongst the = Heortlings
by combining kinstrife and the "threat from within" themes into one = really
great tragic mythic - similar to Modred and Arthur. If chaos was = introduced by
foreigners, the myth goes, Orlanth would have no difficulty defeating it = - - as he
had defeated so many others. But since chaos and the Doom of the World=20 was introduced by his "Mad God" kinsman, chaos could not be defeated = like
any old foreigner or stranger - hence the Lightbringers' Quest to ally = with those
Orlanth had defeated/destroyed in order to save the world.

Along with kinstrife as the greatest source of evil, IMO the Heortlings = also have
a cultural conceit that "since things change", all solutions to dilemnas = are only
ad hoc. In their myths and sagas, survival often consists of chosing = the lesser=20
of two evils. Given their view of the world, chaos is always (in that = Orlanthi=20
sense of the word "all) the greater of the two evils. =20

So why don't the Orlanthi react better to the Goddess' philosophical = claims?=20
Well, IMO it depends on which Orlanth-worshippers you are talking to. = Many
of the Northern Heortling tribes seem to have had very little difficulty =

incorporating Rufelza worship into their pantheon - I'd be wouldn't be = suprised to see myths in Sylilia of the friendship between the Red = Goddess and=20
[Orlanth]. Of course the Northern Heortlings were befriended before = Sheng=20
Seleris imprinted his legacy into the Lunar conciousness. =20

With the Sartarites and the other Southern Heortlings, the Lunar = experience=20
was pretty much straight military occupation. Worse yet, it was = directed not
by a great spiritual hero, but by traditional tribal foes - the "Lunar" = dynasty
of Tarsh. The conquest of Sartar was achieved by using the Red Bat and = an
alliance with Delecti's undead - hardly the sort of conquest that is = likely to
be accepted by the defeated tribes.

Yours truly,

Jeff Richard


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