Yikes. I never thought my "innocent" question would unleased such a torrent.
I've enjoyed reading everything that people have posted about the differences (if any) before and after the "Compromise" (whatever that was). Though I must say that some people take these discussions too seriously and seem to have forgotten how intelligent, adult discourse is supposed to go. Here's just one example (not to single anyone out):
>I'm afraid I have no time(!) for the pseudo-relativistic 4-to-3
>dimensional mumbo jumbo theories. IMHO they are completely and
>spectacularly missing the point. Glorantha just is not suceptible to that
>kind of analysis.
You could have just disagreed and given reasons why. There's a big difference between saying this sort of thing in a face to face situation and through e-mail. Don't forget that something like 70% of communication is body language.
Anyway I wasn't trying to imply that any sort of scientific explanations work in Glorantha at all. As far as I'm concerned (and that's what I do in my campaign) magic can be the reason everything happens. I was using the example of three and four dimensions to show how difficult it is for people to imagine what living in a different world than their own would be. For example a world where magic and divine intervention is a reality rather than our own where they're an illusion.
The take I like on the differences before and after the "Compromise" is the one Loren(?) and others have proposed where the main distinction is that Arachne Solara has spun her web separating the worlds from each other. This had all sorts of effects. Virtually everyone I think would agree that the gods had much more freedom before this event than they do now. (I don't subscribe to the belief that the gods have absolutely no free will. If this was the case they're nothing better than stooges for their priesthoods. I prefer the notion that they're constrained from acting on the mortal plane with as much freedom as they used to).
It seems obvious to me at least that the gods still have some ability to act on the mortal plane-divine intervention is a perfect example. You can say that it's a totally arbitrary act but I think most people run their campaigns in such a fashion that worshippers cannot ask for things beyond their gods power or outside their sphere of influence. Now you can use this as evidence for their lack of free will but it can also be interpreted as gods refusing to act outside their sphere of influence because of the agreement they've made with each other. (Yes, I'm aware that the Dara Happans are said not to acknowledge the Compromise at all but why would Yelm want his worshippers to know he wasn't any better or more powerful than the rest of the gods)?
I don't think that the gods and goddesses are guys you can meet in the bar (or at least you can meet them in the bar but that's not all there is to the deity-Zola Fel IS the river, and a minor embodiment of water and the father of nymphs). The deities are too complex for mortals to comprehend.
If you don't like the 3D and 4D model of pre and post web-slinging how's this? Think of the universe before the "Compromise" as being like the Old West. You've got a heck of a lot of townspeople going about living their lives trying to get by. They're born, they age, they die (or at least they do after Humakt discovers death or separation or whatever you want to call it). Now there's also a bunch of powerful gun slingers (the gods) running around doing whatever the hell they want to according to their natures (we're all slaves to our natures in one way or another). Suddenly theres this bunch of real ornery varmints (the Chaos gods) who want to do whatever they want (which nobody else wants). All hell breaks loose and things look bleak until the marshall, Arachne Solara rides into town and says-Listen you yahoos, you can't do whatever you want anymore. There's gonna be laws in this here town and I want you boys to stay on your own sides of the street and from now on there's gonna be a strict curfew. I don't want to see any of you on the streets before the end of the Universe, understand.
So now the Gloranthan mortals are living on the street, with the gods on one side (the heroplane, Godtime, and the spirit plane) and Chaos on the other with everyone kept as well separated as the police and the army do in our own world.
Oliver D. Bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #271
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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