> We know that the mystics of Kralorela know of it. And Arkat was of
>course Illuminated while still a Malkioni. And Illumination is the central
>mystery of the Nysalor cult - if Illumination had no attraction to the
>Malkioni, would it have spread throughout Ralios, so tenaciously it needed
>a brutal civil war to remove?
As far as I know, Ralios was peopled by a bunch of Storm worshippers and quickly evolving Hsunchen when Nysalor arrived. You may confuse it with Tanisor, where somehow (Malkioni disinterest perhaps?) Illumination did not prosper, so you have all that plague and healing business, that brings up quickly to Arkat.
Arkat conquered all of it (in a quite bloody way) and then made henotheism, with respect to the beliefs of the constituting parts, the state religion. The Return to Rightness crusaders smashed all this and forced everybody to follow the jrusteli way. And after the fall of the Jrusteli Empire, each small town in Ralios tried to return to their original beliefs. And now you have a mosaic of different interpretations of what Arkat's state religion was.
> Personally, I think the essence of Illumination is it allows you to
>reconcile the unreconcilable within yourself - to believe the impossible.
>Among other things, it might allow Malkioni to access some deist magic
>without ceasing to be Malkioni believers (in a frightfully heretical
>manner).
You already have that, more or less, and it is Arkat's legacy, now lost. Illumination is certainly possible for the Malkioni, but they are not dawn to it.
Illumination is so attractive for theists IMO, because it frees the mind of all those contradictions that make life in the Digest (and in the lozenge) so complex. Elmal and Yelmalio? Get illuminated and your problem is gone. You don't understand those damned orlanthi, get illuminated and join them in barbarism. I suspect that most people who wonder why the neighbours worship Orlanth in a different way are in the track of the illuminate. Most will never make it. But they feel the need to know.
It's been said before, but read Heart of Darkness (Apocalypse Now is too distracting).
Malkioni have a more encompassing (always IMO) world view, and that makes them less susceptible to it. Easterners are in a similar position.
And the problem in Glorantha is that what you know has real power.
The horror, the horror!
Jose Ramos
This e-mail address will become inactive the 29th of July. Alternative e-mail: Cristnav_at_arrakis.es
Powered by hypermail