Obscure Lightbringers

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 13 Aug 96 18:35:39 EDT


Manu asks:

> Also, some of you are talking about LBQ. But who are the last persons/gods
with
> the well known one. They are Ginna Jar and the one called in French "L'Homme
> Chair" (I know It's annoying having some book in french and some in english).
> Where can I find more informations about these two?

There isn't a lot of information about Ginna Jar and Flesh Man("l'Homme de Chair"): they are obscure and mysterious figures who do not receive any normal cultic worship. What follows is from Cults of Prax, probably our best source; you can find a little more information in the Chalana Arroy cult myth as given in River of Cradles. (FWIW, I see useful parallels between Flesh Man and the great Prophet Malkion: cf. my Web page for more - last updated on 11 August, and there's more new stuff in the pipeline...).


FLESH MAN was a mortal being, a grandchild of Grandfather Mortal, who was first-made Man and who lived on the slopes of The Spike. Save Humakt and Eurmal, he was the only witness to the death of Grandfather Mortal. This sight made him prophetic, but all his outcries and anguish failed to warn the greater beings of the cosmos. As the world slowly succumbed to the vices of Death the Flesh Man grew more and more crazed by the weight of his knowledge. He fled, but found only the future wherever he went...

[Flesh Man meets Chalana Arroy, who follows him; the other Lightbringers join in]

... The six were together when they reached the edge of the world where the ocean seeped across the land. Beyond that place, the lap of cold chaos froze the very stuff of the world. There, upon the edge of the cosmos, they discovered the mysterious being called GINNA JAR. Throughout elder myths Ginna Jar remains an enigma, occasionally personified as either male or female, occasionally reaching out to assist or interfere, but never taking form. Its identity remained unknown, though many cults claimed its revelation through heroquests. The worship devoted to it was always desperate and usually ineffective.

Detailed research and speculation has indicated that Ginna Jar may have been the ghost of GLORANTHA, the Great Goddess of the Cosmos who had once headed the Celestial Court. There is no mention of Glorantha after her defeat at the hands of the Devil. But there is a mysterious goddess in Hell who combats the Devil and, with the aid of the other gods, defeats it and devours it, shortly afterwards giving birth to the force called Time. The mysterious goddess is called ARACHNE SOLARA in myths and worship and she is generally the vague force of Nature in the world. It is our contention that Glorantha, Ginna Jar and Arachne Solara are the same being. The many differences in their worship is a measure of the wrack and ruin wrought upon the world at the end of Godtime. This is still speculation and further research will surely shed light on the matter.

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