Now on to less serious stuff...
MONOMYTH vs SUBJECTIVE MYTH
There seems to be two very distinct views on this - one is the Gods are real view and the other is that Gods _are_ real but created view.
Lets look at the arguments to support both views:
GODS ARE REAL This argument holds that Gods are entities that actually did all those things in the Godtime, fought, warred, loved and created. This supposes that their actions have a continuity, have stayed very similar throughout time and are pretty much unaffected at their core by ritual or the beliefs/attitudes of their worshippers.
GODS ARE REAL BUT CREATED This argument holds that Gods _are_ entities but not ones with free will or a real history in an objective sense. Their history is subjective to the worshippers viewpoint. Gods actions in this case only have contiuity as long as the priesthood agrees that that is, mythically, what happened. When schisms appear, gods change to match the schism and their appearance on the hero plane and their actions in God time are REFLECTIONS of the beliefs of their worshippers, not actual events.
So what are the pros and cons of both arguments to date (admittedly I have some considerable bias in this one but would welcome other views)?
GODS ARE REAL
(1). We see them in the Holy Day Ritual
(2). We can heroquest and see them doing things on the Godplane that our faith
has told us that they do - therefore they did them.
(3). The priests say they are real
(4). They give us magic
(5). They are real and individual as they chose to obey the compromise
(6). Its a better game when the gods wander around as other games don't do this
GODS ARE REAL BUT CONSTRUCTED
(1). We see them at high holy day rituals - because its a RITUAL that is
massively powerful and creates a reality for the viewers as they all
participated.
(2). Heroquest is another powerful ritual that allows us to see what we want and
we follow paths that are defined - a defined path is one that a faith or cult
has created through its belief and is like a road on the heroplane.
(3). The priests say they are real but the gods change with the priests as each
priest has a different take and over generations fashion changes - so,
therefore, do the gods.
(4). They give us magic, a magic accessed and controlled through the temple or
ritual, as it taps into power that is there. The gods have little choice in the
matter, who the temple accepts is who gets the magic. The magic is in turn
defined by the faith who follows the god.
(5). The compromise is non-existant in most of Glorantha and the reason why the
Gods are not walking around is simply a myth and simply one of many myths - what
the folk are basically saying is "our gods don't walk around - here's why" and
this happens in every culture. Its a myth, not actual events, if it were then
all the other cultures would be wrong.
(6). There a zillions of games where Gods can walk around - Glorantha is unique
because it has a mythic solidity that shows the subjectiveness of myth and the
way magic is defined by magic and belief - the opposing cultural views give
Glorantha that depth and this should be applauded and explored, not stifled
under a monomyth that is "right" because just as in the real world there is no
objective truth.
On rudeness
V.S.Green
>I do have a problem with the "Burn the Monomyth Heretics" arrogance >and (frankly) rudeness of certain comments that have been made, however. >After all, it's all a fictional contsruct and MGF is more important than >comformity to the Digest Lore Lords.
Where the hell are those matches? Well if I have been rude to anyone other that Simon Phipp, then I apologise - Simon sets himself up for assault as he is probably aware and must be bulletproof so I presume it does little damage. This is a highly important issue though and one that must be explored, even if heads must be bashed.
As for MGF, the problem is that the monomyth destorys MGF as it curtails exploring mythic structures in Glorantha and the wonderful dichotomies between the subjective views - some of my greatest MGF is exploring the differences between an Orlanthi mythic view and a Shargashi mythic view and on personal level, finding out how things happened or possibly happened to create the cults we have in 1620. By doing this backtracking we find out even more about the cultures our characters are in and about the past and who it affects the present.
Frex David Dunhams Brolian character always rambles on about the need to destory Lokamayadon - in 1350, though all the Sairdite Orlanthi with him keep telling him that Lokamayon was crushed by Harmast in the first age - Davids character doesn't believe them because the Shamans told him otherwise and these people he is with are obviously sadly misinformed about their supposed knowledge of LMs demise. Its all a trick!
This is MGF stuff, not some confining monomyth that stifles expression and change in preference to one "true way".
Martin Laurie
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #236
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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