My prime prejudice is that in a fantasy game the gods exist. They have personality and goals. In the scheme of Glorantha, The deities are firmly separated from the "real world" but their influence is undeniable. Also, they no longer have free will and can only act according to patterns set down in pre-history when they did have free will.
Secondarily, religions are initiated at first by a direct interaction between a deity and a mortal. The mortal understands as best he can the deity's message and then proceeds to do Great Works in It's Name.
Even though the deity's message will become distorted over time, it still has originated from a being with an agenda. This agenda may be unfathomable, but it still exists. If the priests to Orlanth in Saird and Holay are not screaming awake every Windsday in Storm season and still have the magic that comes from him then having the Red Empire rule those provinces does not disturb his goals. If the Lunar adherents in the West who think the current Red Emperor is a buffoon (Arrolan?) can still get their magic, then the Goddess is not overly concerned with their politics and has bigger fish to fry.
I feel that you can not have complexity without structure, or at least without structure it then has no meaning. Having a half different societies with different cultures and myths is neat and all, but its nothing special to me. Half a dozen cultures whose myths are related and who have different POV's and slants on the myths interests me. I am not saying that any particular culture in has a monopoly on the truth or that two cultures are unable to pay respects to a deity differently (especially if it has more that one aspect like Orlanth). What I am saying is that since all of the myths and stories are coming from effectively the same source (the actions of the gods of Glorantha) they can not be wildly contradicting and maintain their meaning.
I have come to accept that the answer to the identity of Elmal/Yelmalio is left as an exercise for the student. But, knowing this is hardly boring. What it does do is add a touch of elegance to the entire pattern.
(Throw in a little poll data while I'm at it.)
I started to play RQ in '87. One of the things that I generally detested about most game worlds is that each country of humans and each non-human race had it's own set of deities. If you were a human from X, you worshipped this god and if you were a non-human of race Y you picked a god from this list over here. I started playing in Pavis and I was told about Yelmalio, about how he was the god of the Sun Dome and had a human temple in the desert and was worshipped by lots of elves. This attracted my interest. Argan Argar was also mentioned, and a couple of others. I found that I really like the concept that a particular deity had ties to an element or concept and that you could probably pay homage to it regardless of your origin as long as you could fit into the culture.
I play a number of games, even D&D still, but gaming in Glorantha is my fave. (I wouldn't mind a spin through Tekumel or Jorune though. Unfortunately, gaming in any of these worlds is something that I have to run where I am, and I have nothing but Gardasiyal for Tekumel - practically useless.)
I have written a number of adventures, but only a couple of fictional stories. You might get to see one Real Soon Now.
Erich Schmidt
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