Greg,
You likley do not remember the conversation, but a couple of years ago at Gen Con I had the chance to discuss a problem I was having getting a grip on Gloranthan cosmology and "history". I was lamenting what seemed to be a ever increasing number of versions of "what happened". It seemed that depending on what I read, I got a different version of certain events, people, etc. I wondered aloud "I just wish I knew what really happened", to which you responded "Yeah... what *really* happened?"
At the time I wasn't sure what to think. "Was he telling me that *he* didn't know", I wondered. I came to the conclusion that much of what I considered discrepancies were merely your ideas evolving over time. I then began to wonder how a published version could be "official" then be revised later. Such an idea was maddening, hence the tendency for people to knock on wood when mentioning "Gregging".
Anyway, lately I've developed a new theory which seems to reduce the maddening effect of dealing with a complex creation of an evolving thought process. That theory is: what difference does it make? Everything we know about Glorantha is myth and legend. Who cares what really happened? Like most history, what people are going to remember are the stories that get told. Since Glorantha has little in the way of recording actual events (no video recorders, etc), it all comes down to written and spoken narrative. I have been in enough corporate communications semiars to understand that even when painstaking detail are paid to the verbal description passed from person to person, by the time a story gets 10 people down the line you're lucky if you can tell it's the same story. Now applying this phenomena to a society where the stories told are not merely stories for entertainment, but integral parts of our identities as a people and how we deal with the larger forces of our universe we can understand the even greater degree to which details might be altered to make the story more palatable.
I hope this isn't too rambling, but this is a pretty eye opening revelation to me. Suddenly I understand how or why in the middle of everything that is know about Yelmalio's history and origins, we suddenly have Elmal popping seemingly out of nowhere. We have our myths and legends. Then we encounter a people from way over there who have another set of myths and legends. Some of them are like ours, but they've got some we've never heard of. So through all sorts of different mechanisms, our cultures sort of merge and we end up with a set of myths and legends that are different than we had before. Eventually the older versions are forgotten and the "new" myths are remembered as the one true version.
To put it very shortly, people forget what happened. They remember the *stories* about what happened. And the two are *NOT* the same. So in a society where myths provide the means to understanding the forces of the universe, the stories about what happened become more important than the actual event. Which leads to the idea that if enough people believe something it, in a sense, becomes true.
Almost right, I think.
>Everything we know about Glorantha is myth and legend.
Also, (from a Gloranthan perspective) our personal life experiences, which is
not exactly the same as myth and legend.
>Who cares what really happened?
Well, many people actually. Because it affects their daily life in a myriad
of ways. But then, that is what the cermony is for: to check validity.
Remember, that we (Gloranthans) can go to the Event and observe and/or participate in it through ceremony. This turns it into an experience, not a myth.
Of course, it is a mythic experience. The critical factor of mythology is to understand that it *inevitably* takes a shape which you will understand. It is entirely subjective.
>Which leads to the idea that if enough people believe something it, in a
sense, becomes true.
"In a sense," yes. However, there is also a stronger Truth which underlies all real, living mythologies. This sustains its vitality, and offers meaning to us humans.
The mythic mask which we put upon the deeper truths is shaped by believers, and more beleivers reinforce the experience, making it a common experience rather than a singular one. But we can oly shape it within its bounds, or else it will be come something else.
Which is the "problem," in that the myth has its own life and vital force which will inevitably interact with whomever shapes it, too.
Anyway, there you have it.
Brian
+-------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Brian Curley | http://axle.doit.wisc.edu/~bkc/brian.html || bkc_at_axle.doit.wisc.edu | .sig shortened at Nick Brooke's request :)|
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