I've been busy in the "real world" (if you consider American elections real) for the past few weeks, so I haven't had time to keep up with all the twists & turns of the Time debate, or its natural slopping over into the "nature of the Gods" question.
In my campaigns, the definition of Time is that given by Gollum in the Hobbit: "This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, treese, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."
Time is the child born after Arachne Solara consumes the God of Entropy, Kajabor. "Before time" means "before entropy." It does not mean that there was not cause-and-effect, nor chronology. The Compromise froze the Gods in the patterns that existed "before Time" which left them immune to the "great Fear" of total annihilation but also prevented them from acting any more. Freedom from the destruction of entropy could only be achieved by giving up freedom altogether -- they chose preservation over change.
There's a price for this -- paid not only by the Gods but also by all Gloranthans -- the "snap-back" against every attempt to change Glorantha, whether by Nysalor, the God Learners, the EWF or the Lunars is a re-enactment of the choice of Law (or Stasis) over Chaos (or change).
So Gods are like Brithini or Dwarves -- they certainly can act but the price of acting outside their roles is eventual extinction. They CAN be changed by their worshippers, however -- for the worshippers retain freedom. But the path to Godhood and immortality is always one that removes choice as an option.
By the way, if a God is destroyed, sooner or later his/her "place" is filled by a heroquesting mortal who becomes the new God of xxx. This has happened several times before, as Gods have died singly or in great numbers. (this explains I think the various "Suns" of mythology) I assume the loss of writing remained until a new heroquester succeeded in replacing or becoming Issaries and Lankhor Mhy.
The Gods themselves don't quite understand this process, and their own actions and motivations are almost as much a mystery to themselves as they are to "mere" mortals.
Anyway, that's how it is in "my" Glorantha.
Jim Chapin
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #289
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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