A very very pissed off David after his first try at answering these questions was eaten by a Netscape inspired hard disk error, that necessitated reformatting and ate his email in-box for the last year or so....
Any, first to the various Pelorian questions.
Yelorna
I have decided to simply skip the whole issue for the moment, including removing all mention from the Pelorian Prosopaedia. Simply put, there are contradictions in various sources, vociferous disagreement here on the digest, and it really doesn't matter. For the moment, anything said about it must remain highly speculative - and as such, I'm going to leave the issue out of the Pelorian Prosopaedia, which I would like to contain a relatively uncontroversial view.
There are a couple of people that say it is Praxian (including Greg, in the RQ Con 2 Lore Auction - just got the Compendium last night), it is linked to the Yelmalio cult, and in the Broken Council Guidebook it is a cult that comes from Ralios, originally Galinini. And GOG says it is part of the Solar Pantheon, which pretty much means Peloria, Pent, Kralorela (which is a large part of why it ended up in the Pelorian Prosopaedia in the first place). So I think I'll just let it slide until Greg can be pinned down, unless Digest concensus unexpectedly breaks out.
Now my tentative personal take on the history of the Yelorna cult, an attempt to reconcile the various contradictory accounts. Taking the Broken Council Guidebook as a starting point, Yelorna worship originates among the Galanini tribes of Ralios. It is a light cult, but not a sun cult, and they ride, but probably not unicorns. It is among the forces that join together at the First Council, and enthusiastically supports the attempt to create a new god of light. It is possible that the Yelorna cult first meets the Praxian Unicorn riders at this time. Anyway, the cult responds in force to the Call for Heroes, and supports Nysalor in battle. By the time its all over, they are trapped in Peloria - the route through Dorastor and Kartolin is pretty much impassable. They are not welcomed by the Dara Happans (women warriors? Huh?) but settle in the fringes of Peloria. I say Jarst - simply because Jarst is said to have female unicorn riding star deities, and this seems to big a coincidence to overlook. The cult is still a very minor power, though. I think that the modern cult as we know it arises from heroquesting at this period, and some cultural cross over with the Pelorians. They get a Shield Maiden tradition, and heroquesters integrate the cult with the native mythology somewhat.
Then later, in the second age, I think the cult send missionaries to Prax, perhaps in search of unicorns, or possibly to investigate the unicorn riders. After the Dragonkill, they are trapped their for a time, from whence comes the Pavis settlement.
The Lowfires
Yeah, everybody knows that Oakfed is well known in Prax since early times, and Gustbran is known to the Orlanthi. That is not news.
But they are also in the Lodril cult writeup as the three Lowfires, the children of Lodril. So, does this mean the Lodril writeup (and virtually all Lodril stuff pre-GRoY) is simply gregged and wrong? Or does the Lodril cult writeup represent the truth of the situation somewhere?
IMHO - the lowfires are known as Lodrils children in at least parts of Peloria, probably the southern parts, around Saird and so on. They were originally mythologically very minor, but have grown in importance for purely practical reasons (much like, say, Barntar or Voriof). The Gustbran cult has spread to nearby Sartar, and perhaps other places, due to pure usefulness. The identification of the Praxian Oakfed with the Pelorian wildfire is a God Learnerism, which like all God Learnerisms contains a grain of mythic truth, and a ton of misapplication - one or the other calls the Wildfire something completely different.
But then again, if the concensus is that the Lodril cult description is all garbage (and it is certainly the most gratuitous God Learnerism known to man at the very least), I'm prepared to abandon it.
And the last of the Pelorian issues
The Celestial Court
Joerg
>>We first have to find out whether the 'classic' Celestial Court (CC) was
>>inherited by the Jrusteli from the Theyalan Councils (IMO it was).
I think it probably was myself.
Peter Metcalfe
>IMO it wasn't. The Celestial Court was an observable phenomenon from
>all over glorantha during the good old days and every major culture
>would have had it's own names for the Celestial Court.
I think Peter overstates the case a little - a formation of ten celestial bodies was observable phenomenon. But that doesn't mean everybody said 'look, ten things in the sky, they must be a collection of deities called the Celestial Court'. As the only cultures we know of having the concept are neighbouring, it seems reasonable that there is at least some connection, especially bearing in mind other similarities.
>I don't see why
>the God Learners have to thieve from the Theyalans when they have
>perfectly adequate mythology of their own.
Hey, they're God Learners. Grabbing other peoples mythology and incorporating it into their own schema was what it was all about.
>David in fact knows my opinions
>on this matter which is why he is asking it here
Indeed. I respect Peters opinions enough that when I think he is wrong, I ask other knowledgeable people rather than assume I'm correct.
More to follow.
Cheers
David
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