Joerg Baumgartner says about the Storm Rune:
>I always found this [Dragon's Ring spiralling through the Sky] a
> lame excuse why should anybody explain air by a
>constellation which appeared only quite lately in the Silver Age sky?
The Storm Rune was formed by the path Umath took when he lifted Aether from Gata and made s apace for himself. As he lifted his father, he turned around and walked to the edge of the world, tracing his path. Alternatively (from the Sky Myths) a deity (I can't remember who but it is in the later works) chased Umath as he lifted Aether and forced him to move in this shape.
Orlanth merely inherited the Rune from his father when he became chief of the Storm Tribe. OK, he probably did more to get ownership of the rune, but this is only a simple explanation.
Zorak Zoran's Eyes
James Frusetta:
> You could probably get a nice ZZ heroquest from this: ritually poking
> out one's own uz eyes, and inserting eyes from powerful foes you kill.
> Might gain some neat abilities, depending on whose eyes you snitch.
In my campaign, when Derak the Dark Troll, who was a Living Lead Skeleton at that time, HeroQuested to become a fertile Dark Troll again, he underwent a rebirth ritual. One of the things he did was to take body parts on HeroQuests for incorporating within humself. He took web glands from a spider to place in his wrists, gills to place in his neck and the eyes of a Jabberwock for the flaming glance. (I can't rmember where he met the Jabberwock - it was a long time ago). Unfortunately, the "flaming glance" became "ignite at a glance" and bulged every time he tried it.
> Or perhaps you can keep your old set, and swap 'em in and out as
> circumstances suggest. ("Well, time to raid the elf forest. Where'd I
> stick those aldryami eyes...?")
Like Worzel Gummidge, perhaps?
> Um, sorry, Simon Phipp. This was supposed to be an example of the kind
> of pointless academic debate we _weren't_ supposed to talk about, wasn't
> it...? <g> You've given the monster life! LIFE! Bwahahahahaha!
Yes, but what colour are they?
Monomyth
Obviously, everyone has their own ideas of what the Monomyth is. Peter Metcalfe seems to think it is the Jrusteli linking of all deities into grand super-deities (all Sun Gods being the same, all Storm Gods being the same etc.). Of course, this is a *BAD THING* and every right-minded person should fight against it. However, I don't see that as being the Monomyth.
In my opinion, what Peter Metcalfe sees as History is the Monomyth. Originally, each culture had its own myths of their deities and spirits, using their local names for the deities and spirits with local colour, flavour and interpretation. These myths were History as Peter says.
The First and Second Councils travelled through a portion of Genertela and saw that different people had similar myths concerning similar events, places and deities. What they did was to realise that these local myths were part of a greater whole - what I would call the Monomyth - and they took the myths and connected them, making them clearer to everyone. Thus, Orlanth's deeds were pieced together as were the deeds of the other Lightbringers, those of the Earth Pantheon and many of the Sky Pantheon. At this time, the connection between Yelm and the Orlanthi Emperor/Tyrant was made, uniting the two strands of myth. Later, Arkat and Nysalor did similar things, but to a lesser extent, and Harmast united many of the Orlanthi myths into a fairly cohesive whole. This was a *GOOD THING*.
The Jrusteli took the current state of affairs and expanded on it, identifying even more similar myths and making the Monomyth even more cohesive. However, it seemed to go to their heads a bit and they went far beyond the pale. Eventually, they identified all the Grain Goddesses as being the same and worked the Goddess Switch to prove it. This was a *BAD THING* as it was not true, but they made it true. Having done this, they tried to do similar things to other deities/myth patterns and distorted the Monomyth to their own ends.
If we take away such distortions, we are left with the basic, underlying cohesive myth structure which can only be of benefit to everyone.
If we look at the myths contained in the GRoY supplement and the Entekosiad (hah - finally remembered what it was called), we can see tantalising links to outside myths. The stories about the Waters invading Pelanda, the Dara Happan Floods, the Digijelm attacking Dara Happa, the Ice Sheets, Lodril being attacked and bound and others are reflected in the general Monomyth as described in Cults of Terror, Cults of Prax, Gloranthan Encyclopedia etc. However, they are told from such a different perspective, with names changed and events told from completely different angles (deliberately so, I think) that the task of piecing them together in long and time-consuming (although fun). I would prefer to have the myths set down in a similar style to those in Troll Pack and Cults of Terror, clear, concise and factual, just so we know what went on. It would even be possible to give a local slant to things - giving the myth from a local perspective without completely obscuring the myth.
Anyhow, that's my view. Unfortunately, this will never occur because those against the idea of a rationally-based game-world where the mythology is actually well-defined are in a vast majority. I cannot for the life of me see why people would prefer that their myths were confusing, ill-defined and contradictory. Surely it would be better to know what actually happened, rather than what people think happened.
Back to Peter's comments:
> Ehilm is the impersonal Solar Disc (per Wyrms Footprints). The
> Purifying Fire is an Orlanthi myth.
But, if in the Orlanthi myth Ehilm had the Purifying Fire then it would belong to him. Or are you saying that the deeds of a deity depend on who is worshipping him - Ehilm only has the Purifying Fire when Orlanthi are there, not when Ralian cultists are present? Maybe Ehilm is the impersonal Solar Disc (the Face of the Sun?), but he still commands the Purifying Fires.
> They are not the same cults but since these cults all worship the
> Sun, they are the same diety.
Why? What is wrong with having more than one Sun God - the Fiery Sun; the Lofty, Regal Sun (Yelm); the Sun Horse (Kargzant); the Solar Disc (Ehilm); the Winter Sun (Elmal); the Mountain Sun (Yelmalio); the Bloody Sun (Rausa); the Desert Sun (Sun Hawk??) and so on? You argue against the Monomyth identifying all the Sun Gods, for instance, as being the same and then say the same thing yourself. Maybe all are aspects of a Primal Sun, but that would probably be Aether as the Primal Sun/Sky/Fire.
> Or else we might be saying that
> the Lunars and the Malkioni worship different Creators. Or was it
> the Cosmic Dragon who created the World? How about Earthmaker?
The Creation myths are always difficult to reconcile. Perhaps they cannot be reconciled. Perhaps, at a higher level, the Creator first made the Cosmic Dragon or the Cosmic Dragon *IS* the Creator. Reminds me about asking what happened before the Big Bang or who created God - - not worth even thinking about.
Gift Carriers
Andrew Joelson on the Gift Carriers:
> I cannot speak with authority on the Gift Carriers; I can only
> suggest them to be a metaphor, and not acutal entities. I beleive that
> any 'GL' who understood the Great Secret had opened his mind in certain
> ways, and was exposed to the backplash. When said GLs were suddenly
> surrounded by a mystic aura & their brains came oozing out of their ears,
> it was reported by observers as being the vengence of the gods, etc.
> Suitable historical editing by anti-GL cultures would evolve this into
> the idea of actual entities....
Ohhh... what a shame. i much perfer the idea of kill-crazy gods taking things into their own hands and smashing the God Learners into pulp. After all, their end took many years - it did not happen overnight. If it was caused by a "backlash" then surely it would have been more sudden. After all, Arkat's campaign against Gbajio took 75 years to complete. I would suggest that a similar campaign against the God Learners would have taken many years. Much more fun, in my opinion.
Well, that's about all for this time. Working nights sure gives good opportunity to catch up with the Digests - thanks be to Neat ideas for cocking things up completely in the UK.
Simon
If it has stats it can be killed.
If it is in the rules it can be abused.
If it is mentioned it can be targetted.
People can change the world and screw up the Timeline.
Restrictions are for NPCs, not for PCs.
Taking Power Gaming to new extremes (in a sensitive, role-playing way, of course)
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #211
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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