monomyth

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 13:52:20 +1300


V S Greene:

Me>> I don't see the need for the monomyth in the type of supplements that
>> people have been wanting ie regional in scope. When doing a description
>> of Ralios frex, I do not want to see the Sun God of the Galininae being
>> referred to as Yelm objectively. [...] It has as much appeal as running
>> a fantasy earth campaign where Satan is the God of the Aztecs (which is
>> the God Learner equivalent of how they altered gloranthan myhtology).
 

> The point is that Glorantha is a whole lot smaller than Earth and
>Gloranthan history is a lot shorter than Earth's, at least since the Dawn.

And many of those groups in Glorantha have been seperated since the Great Darkness, brought into the Monomyth briefly by the God Learners and rejected the Monomyth as a pernicous invention after their downfall and gone back to the old ways. There is very little commonality between the mythos of Loskalm and the mythos of Esrolia, both of whom were ruled by the God Learners. So I don't see the need for the Monomyth to be used in the regional supplements.

Sure people will need to know what the cults refer to: like in Ralios, Ehilm is the Sun God whereas Galanini is the God of Horses. But this is _not_ the monomyth by a long shot. The monomyther would say that the Sun is actually the God Yelm and not the false and inferior god Ehilm by which name the Galaninae know him. It is far better to say that Yelm and Ehilm are two names for the Sun in different languages.

>There is one sun in the sky of Glorantha. "Yelm" in one place _is_ the
>same entity as the sun god of some other place in Genertela; he might
>have different aspects due to differences in his worship, but it is
>valid to assume that they are the same being.

Look at the Real World. There is only one sun. Yet in and around the mediterranean sea, a region of constant cultual intercourse, there are many names and cults for the sun. So why should we make reference to the egyptian sun god Ra if we are detailing a supplement involving the Italian Pennisular? That is equivalent to the relevance the monomyth has in glorantha today.

> After all, we have a Monomyth on Earth; we call it Science.

English would be a better analogy, methinks.

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