Magical Seasons

From: Michael Raaterova <michael.raaterova.7033_at_student.uu.se>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 12:42:03 +0100


Pam has a very good idea (as usual):

>BUT - Glorantha being as magical as it is, I assume that if everyone in
>an area follows rituals devoted to one element or another, it can
>actually change the weather. Therefore, each of the five Theyalan
>seasons likely has unique weather - part natural, part magical. I hope
>that confuses things.
>
>Perhaps it helps to think of the celestial calendar as marking _time_,
>while the five season calendar marks the flow of magic, though only
>where it's used.

I like it a lot.

There's one problem with this, though: Dark Season. What right-thinking orlanthi culture would devote lots of rituals to Darkness, Cold and Snow? Also i wonder why orlanthi would celebrate Yelm and the solar stuff?

OTOH, the problem is easy to solve. We have to look at it on a much wider scale and on the interplay of different cultures and myths. An example: the Uz Bring-Back-Wonderhome rituals before and during Dark Season creates or vastly influences the weather of Dark Season all over Glorantha, even though local Fight-the-Dark rituals can mitigate the effects.

There is another thing to decide though: Is Dark Season created by the UZ Wonderhome rituals, or do the Uz celebrate their Wonderhome rituals because it's Dark Season? If we accept that God Time is non-linear, i think that the Seasons are (mostly) created by the seasonal rituals, even though there are phenomena, like Yelm's State of Radiance, that make these rituals easier or more difficult to perform, effectively forcing the seasonal rituals to happen in a certain progression. The Sacred Time rituals could even include a ritual that enforces the usual seasonal progression to make sure that seasons happen in their proper sequence. This makes MGF if the Sacred Time rituals are screwed up - snow in summer, torrential rains and storms in earth season and drought in winter, and things generally are out-of-place and out-of-order.

So, the make-up of the year is affected by an Order-of-the-Year ritual in Sacred Time, cultural rituals of the seasons and Specific Phenomena, lozenge-wide and local.

Prax and the Wastes, frex, is pretty dry and harsh because it is the Home of Daga, god of Drought and Famine, and Gagarth, god of Wild Weather (not to mention our favourite - Stormbull the Desert Storm). This makes it pretty hard for the Rain Rituals to create more than dew and temporary dampness, but if they were not performed, or if Daga and Gagarth were not propitiated, the dryness would be even worse. If the Darkness became stronger in Prax, the place could turn into a Cold-stricken drought-plain.

Likewise, Far Point is probably the wettest and stormiest place in Genertela, because of its vicinity to Sky River Titan's place of Power and that it is located next to Wintertop, Orlanth's birthplace. I think Far Point might also be the place where Orlanth freed Heler from Aroka. Daga is actually a benign deity (possibly a foster-brother to Elmal) in Far Point, providing some relief from the almost unceasing rains.

Comments on this most welcome.

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