A lot of people have been commenting recently that the 'evolutionism' viewpoint takes away the 'magic' of glorantha by denying the existance of the gods. The point about Glorantha is that it is not just a place with gods in it - it is a place where humans can do magic. How they view their use of magic is the driving force behind glorantha IMO, not 'the existance of gods'. As far back as Cults of Terror, it was known that there were four seperate ways of looking at the universe.
MYSTICISM: Found in Kralorela [according to CoT, the geographical distributions of all four viewpoints has changed a bit since the God Learners]. Views the world as an Illusion with the Void as the only reality.
THEISM: Found in West-Central Genertela. Views the world as a result of the interaction of Gods.
HUMANISM: Found in the West. Views the world as an interaction of inanimate forces that can be moulded by human actions.
NATURALISM: Found in places where the others are not. Views the world as an interaction of spiritual forces.
Now what the God Learners discovered that all these viewpoints are _equally_ valid. A humanist for example may see the sun as the abode of the Fire Rune where a theist would call it a God. The Mystic would call it the Mind of the Cosmic Dragon as percieved by corrupt human senses whereas the Naturalist might call it as the glowing tip of the Earthmakers Firestick (which is much bigger than his own which he uses to make magic). Everyone acknowleges that the Sun is a powerful Otherworldly force. The humanist may not call it divine but that is semantics. Each can interact with the sun in his or her own way and every one of those beliefs is valid. To assume that the Theist alone has privileged information is jarring IMO.
Thus saying statements like 'The Gods, being concrete realities, made the world' implies that the viewpoints of the sorcerers, the shamans and the mystics are objectively false. And this I feel diminishes Glorantha *more* than assuming that peoples views of the nature of the universe changed over time.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #290
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