At least for me this strikes a relevant chord. I've use RQ in the background for a long time in campaigns. Only more recently (over the last three years) have I moved more towards Glorantha. However, my base to work from is limited-Old Cults of Prax, Chaosium RQ rules, Pavis/Big Rubble, plus the mind-bogglingly mediocre early AH stuff and the more palatable recent AH stuff. Which I guess is by way of an apology for a lack of grasp of some of the arcane fanzine details.
Tonight I found out that King of Sartar deals the later stuff- post what we have now. My reaction was a little hesitant. From my point of view the build ups to the great conflagrations are the important times are central. To engage players one can maintain that sense that there is something looming over the horizion. This is where Mr. Baumgartner's comment matches my own thought.
In the area that I use Gorantha material I have focused on the importance of time. The peoples view History as a series of waves. These rise with building events, come to a crest and then break down. For people in my world, this conception of history is central. Deciding where waves happened in the past becomes a major ideological issue---can you claim your empire or house is legitimate because of the time it came? Conflicting views on the placement of this points cause rifts even within the Knowledge cults. Beyond that defing ones order or cult by claiming it herald a new wave would be a common practice (much like our modern cry of "a new era in X"---but with much more power.) Additionally those who could claim to understand these patterns? signs? could claim legitimacy.
I use Glorantha and Prax in particular in contrast to the established heirarchical view of the outside world. Time is mutable there. THere the mythic elements are closer. The time when time was not, or was not as it is. Travel to the Mythic lands for my players (rare tho it is) is a confusing mixture of time travel and break-down of causality. There is no definite order of events when it comes to gods or the divine. My players can get there heads around that, a little, and that's what I want---a glimmer of insight into how those things might work without certainty.
History and the control of it is vital to a culture, and Baumgartner strikes an important point here. My reaction goes back to hearing about KoS (I almost dread finding a copy). The Hero Wars? Who gets to define when these happen---will there be "necessarily a general change all over the world?"
(Three years of reading and playing from this world and I'm still a Glorantha-Newbie...sigh.)
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