I'd rather not reiterate the fine points of David Cake, Nick Brooke and Martin Laurie regarding Chris' sneaking suspicion that we are out to disprove the Orlanthi truths. I, for one, am an "Orlanthi-phile" and find the complexities and internal contradictions of the Orlanthi to be endlessly fascinating. Like any human culture, the Orlanthi are not interally consistent in their beliefs - part of what makes them human I guess. What I do not like or find interesting is banal insistence that the several million worshippers of Orlanth in Genertela are locked in an obsessive crusade against the couple of hundred thousand Red Moon worshippers. The tensions between the occupiers and the occupied in Dragon Pass is considerably more complex than the Red Dawn mentality ("Lunar=Chaos, thus must kill Lunar on sight"). Boring. I much more interested in the tension within the tribe and between the clans ("damned Orlevings") than insipid whining about the Red Moon or those nasty elements.
>Final riddle - I'd like to take an informal poll. How many members of
>the Digest ...
>(a) Came into Glorantha via gaming, as opposed to fiction? (KoS, Gray,
>etc.)
Yep. I was introduced to Glorantha about fifteen years ago through RQ2. Back then, nobody wanted to play an Orlanth-worshipper (Humakt, Lanbril, Black Fang and Storm Bull were all popular) and we all thought that the Sartarites were like the Greek city-states under Roman (Lunar) domination. I mean they sure looked Greek in the pictures and they had cities and all.
>(b) Still play Glorantha-based RPG's (RQ, other home-grown variants)
Absolutely. Glorantha is the only FRPG I have any interest in - our SFC gaming group gets together nearly every week (with some exceptions - right now we are way too busy organizing the Victoria Con!!!) and games in Quiviniland of the 1350s (my ToDP game), Alkoth in the 1600s (Pam's Alkoth game), and Ralios in the late 1500s (David Dunham's Ralios campaign). O ccasionally Martin Laurie comes on down from British Columbia and runs the hack-n-slash Tarsh heroes campaign (Tarsh & Saird in the age of Hwarin Dalthippa). As rules we tend to use PenDragon Pass or RQ 3.
>(c) Seriously write Gloranthan based essays or fiction (Myths, Stories,
>Poems, etc?)
I guess so - since I'm writing a few for Enclosure. Most of my literary output goes into the game, not for publication.
Alex Ferguson noted:
>I think Elmal is still worshipped as an Actual Cult (TM). In some
>cases, yes, he'll just be an "associate" of Orlanth, but if I recall
>KoS correctly, one of the Runegate (former) triaty is alleged to be
>"the Elmal clan", so my money is on them having an honest-to-god
>Elmal temple there.
Alex, you've predicted part of the section in Enclosure called "Cults of the Quivini" - or something like that. Rumor has it that Enclosure will have an actual Elmal cult write-up (although that might just be a rumor).
Yours truly,
Jeff
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #492
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