Illumination Arkati Beards

From: Simon Phipp <crassus_at_dol.ru>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 19:35:24 +0400


Illumination, Arkati and God Leraners:

I seem to remember a snippet from one of the official convention booklets (How the West Was Won?) giving the revelation to one chappie from the Invisible God that gave rise to the Stygian Heresy. This was WAY before Arkat's time.

The Stygians of Ralios worship the Invisible God and other Deities as part of this general tradition. The Waertagi also worship as part of the Stygian complex, as did the Jrusteli and Serpent Kings (thanks Joerg) and the Lunars and Henotheists today. (In my game, the Trader Princes are part of a Stygian cult of Trader Malkioni). In none of these cases is Illumination a pre-requisite.

Do not be confused - you do not need to be an Illuminate to be a henotheist or to belong to Arkat's cult. Only the most trusted of members of Arkat are Illuminated and that is through the cult. Imagine the consequences if Illuminates could just join the cult of Arkat - "yes, I'll seek out Evil Illuminates and kill them, honest, no I don't belong to any Evil cults".

Anyway, what is wrong with Stygians being "Pious Malkioni"? As far as I am concerned, they are. They can access Solace

Alex:

> Arkatism. In that last case, we know that
> from their common origins, it must be not so very dissimilar to
> (Pelorian-style) Illumination, but as it's by its very conception
> opposed to the other, it's hard to imagine them being compatible.

"Arkatism" shows itself to be Illumination, but under the influence of St. Arkat's Blessing good Arkati Illuminates show up as White and non-Arkati (bad) Illuminates show as mottled grey (I believe). Arkat knows the difference between a Good Illuminate and a Bad One. It;s all a matter of what you do with it.

Joerg:

> Wasn't this rather a retro-God Learning method, trying to reconstruct the

> un-God Learned versions of the Dara Happan gods (most of all Yelm)? While

> such an attempt may well have used GL methods, its aims would have gone
> contrary to those of the Theyalans and the GLs.

There is a difference between using God Learner methods and being a God Learner. Even the enemies of the God Learners must have used some of their methods - HeroQuesting, using knowledge and Quests from many cultures, inserting Quests which fit "near enough" as Stations in your own Quests. These are such invaluable tools that any Experimental HeroQuestor must use them to succeed.

The God Learners used the God Riddling Contest to increase in power - as far as I know, nobody else does this. They also trampled over the God Plane with hobnail boots - no respect, you see. They also exceeded their mandate as part of the Back to Rightness Crusade. (That's what happens when you are Stygians who accept the worship of other deities than the Invisible God and then try to reconcile the whole of Malkionism - you must investigate the worship of each and every god to see whether it fits into the True Worship. The danger of this are that you find that personally all the gods are compatible or could be made to be compatible.

I believe that many of the projects of the God Learners were designed to make certain gods compatible with their modes of worhip or, in the case where they were incompatible, to make a new compatible god with much the same powers as the old one.

Joerg on Arkati Generals:

> The latter would be a Belintar-like stunt, and seems out of time for the
> 1050ies, so I tend to regard the text as born from confusion.

Why not? It seems like the best explanation - let's sumon up those Generals who led us in Arkat's Time and get their help. It has been used with Belintar, at castle Blue, The Nights of Horror and probably other places too. Good mythical practice.

> IMO Tanisor had embraced first Malkionism, then Illumination. Neither to
> their full extent, as the subsequent developments seem to imply - their
> kings becoming the Vampire Kings. (And likely the source for the
> Vivamort-Humakt enmity myth...) The plague&healing trick IMO was played
> around Laurmal.

Aaaagh! Why put things this way round? Why not that Humakt gained Death after Vivamort told Eurmal the Secret, thus causing emnity between them, thus the Vampire Kings and Humakti fights would reinforce the myth. It seems strange that people always want to assume that the major myths came afterwards.

David Cake on false beards:

> Presumably, then, the common misunderstanding that IO is a man, is
> due to Pelorian unfamiliarity with the LM custom of false beards. After
her
> experiences with the Red Goddess, she casts off her false beard,
revelling
> in the personal freedom granted by the goddess (but the Lunar historians
> that had been referring to her as a man, are too embarrassed about it to
> admit it).

Reminds me of a quote from someone famous (Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward - someone like that) on being asked whether a hippopotamus was male or female said "That is surely a metter for another hippopotamus" or something similar - OK, so I didn't remember the quote but the point is made - who cares whether Irrippi Ontor was male or female? The cult educates the Empire, the magics work, the Quests work. So what if the god is a goddess? In Glorantha these things are not important to normal people. As far as I know, there are no feminist movements in Glorantha devoted to the building up of Feminine Role-Models as there is no need - look at the Lunar Way, Troll Kind, The Earth Pantheon - all classic examples of the Female Supremacy. If you want to break the mould of the traditional Male-Dominated culture, do what Etyries did and join the Lunars.

Anyway, got to go.

Simon              

Simon Phipp <crassus_at_dol.ru>


Al Bundy on Fidelity - "Why go out for milk when you've a cow at home"



End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #76


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