>Assume for a minute that every source we've had
>upto now, admitting GRoY, tFS, the Entekosiad and Trollpak, are all Orlanthi
>perspectives.
I don't know about that. We have a lot of God Learner stuff there too...
>Look at WF in the Gods and Goddesses section where it
>*specifically states* time does not exist and all actions were taken
>simultaneously in Godtime.
Could you give the exact reference for this (page and location on page)? I'd like to look it up now that you've brought it to our attention.
>I believe that if you ask the Orlanthi godi if time existed
>before Time, and then plagued him with paradoxes *like* the CA paradox, then
>they would happily admit that time was more of a storytelling aid than
>anything to worry about.
He might if he was so inclined. Or he might give one of the previouly argued responses that one of the manifestations of her was her servant, or some other groovy explanation. Or he might just say, "Of course the White Lady was in two places at once. Gods can do that. That's why they're gods and you aren't." (re Andrew Joelson's post on the topic in GD V.03 #272). This does not deny sequential understandings of events in GodTime - it just posits a different understanding of the nature of gods than that they are bound by human limits of being physically in one place and not another at the same moment - and who knows: maybe you can do it too if you become a powerful heroquester!. The point here is that a godi might quite easily give a coherent explanation rather than just say "Its a device for storytelling".
>The Orlanthi ignore Time, and use it or ignore it as they see fit in their
>myths. Therefore, odd things like Vinga/HoG occur.
Like Peter, perhaps, I just don't see any evidence of a wishywashy "now we have time and now we don't" occuring in the myths of Orlanthi peoples. And ignoring time in telling stories is not the same as saying it doesn't exist in this story but it does in the others.
>> The Vinga myths are minor and quite varied across the lozenge
>>(IMO) and have not yet been set down for the public even by that mighty
>>sage Greg Stafford (AFAIK). In any case it is almost certain that any third
>>age priest worth his salt is going to have a very coherent sense of the
>>order of events in GodTime which his society recognises
>Yes, that's it!! It's the minor points that the Orlanthi can't handle with
>proper logic. The Big Picture is logical, but people who investigate too
>much, and start nit-picking, start finding loop-holes and paradoxes.
>While this may be due to the slow decay of storytelling throughout the ages,
>and GL meddling mucking it all up, I feel that I'm right in saying that
>Orlanthi mythology isn't altogether logical.
Well, perhaps because I favour logical approaches, I feel (at this point) that Orlanthi mythology is as logical as any other. I'm certain that different groups of Orlanthi have different ideas about what happened in the GodTime - according to their local versions of the myths. What's the problem with that? What makes them Orlanthi is a variety of things, essentially just a sharing of main principles, not dogmatic adherence to One True Mythology. But within their individual groups they'll be mythically coherent, until they meet another group which thinks differently and may be able to influence them. The dynamic of change...
Can you give me an example of a loop-hole or paradox related to time in mythology that a Sartarite Orlanthi might bring up with his or her godi (or pick a different group if you like)? I'll try to give an explanation which conforms to my impression that Orlanthi understanding of their mythology is quite coherent in terms of logical progression of events. Just to try and forestall the Vinga one, (as you noted) it depends on which versions you use. This is very important because I think each group will say different things, but within each group the myths will fit easily. Given that, to get a 'paradox' of sequence you'll have to tie it down to specific groups which may hold to the conflicting versions...
Pax
Saravan.
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