>What I don't like is stuff like, "Are Elmal and Yelmalio the same diety?"
>Either they are, or they're not.
In that case: take the approach that they are different deities which can be approached by similar worship, since they cater for similar but in certain aspects different needs.
Those heroquesters or missionaries who "prove" the identity of two local "variants of the same god" cheat, or destroy one of the pair by removing its identity but keeping the powers. That's what the Lightbringer missionaries, and later on Lokamayadon, did to the vast variety of Storm gods when they spread the cults of Orlanth. Sometimes the destruction of identity can be reverted...
Now, is this all nice and objectivist for you?
>[...] Invariably, the campaigns I've been involved with solve this issue
>by throwing Elmal out the door.
Too bad that you're leaving Greg's, and thereby "official", i.e. (to be) published Glorantha.
>Now, I know I said, "just look at it as heroquesting." And, you can
>certainly do that. I'm just saying that I don't like widely contradictory
>information. I don't care about the details, I'd like the major points to
>be concrete.
In that case, you can have the objectivist approach and all the multiplicity you like, by assuming that there are any number of deities, similar to others, worshipped locally, and sometimes allowing cross-worship, and spell excange. Like Kethaelan Humakt Masters of Luck and Carmanian "Humakti" Daxdarians, or whoever it was at Four Arrows of Light.
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