What Argrath Really Did from rhwolfe1_at_ix.netcom.com on 1997-08-06 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: rhwolfe1_at_ix.netcom.com
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 23:30:53 -0500 (CDT)

I was checking out Nick's Gloranthan page recently, and I skimmed one of his articles theorizing about what Argrath really did when he
"killed" the Red Moon. I know Nick's mentioned this on the digest,
but I'll summerize. Basically he proposes that Argrath, as an unwitting tool of the dragonnewts (and the Red Moon herself), enacted a ritual that simply moved the Moon along to its next stage, that being the "White Orbiter" mentioned in King of Sartar. He concluded his theory with a retorical question, something along the lines of,
"Hey, Orlanthi, feel used?"

I felt as a Sartari patriot and the first High King of Dragon Pass (Maniski Firebreath, r. 1336-1342, last words "it seemed like a good idea at the time"), I owe Nick's question a response, to whit:

Heck, no.

Even assuming Nick's theory is true, all it shows is that Argrath finally realized an important truth. He figured out who the enemy was. Argrath thought all along his goal was to bring down the Red Moon and destroy her cult. But he eventually realized that his real enemy wasn't the Moon, it was Moonson. Not the Lunars, but the Lunar Empire. And White Orbiter or not, he did a great job wrecking the Empire (hell, he wrecked four or five of them). Argrath may not have achieved his philosophical goals, but he achieved his political ones, freedom for the Quivini from the Oppressive Solar Empire From the North (Version 3.3 - 3.9). I doubt there's a red-blooded Orlanthi alive who wouldn't agree that that was a Good Thing.

Two other points worth mentioning:

I doubt Shepelkirt was a willing participant in her
"transformation" into the White Orbiter any more than
Yelm was a willing participant in his various transformations. In setting herself up as a Yelm replacement, the RG unwittingly took on Yelm's mythic role, which is basically to be a glorified shuttlecock. Yelm (and the moon) are doomed forever to be the Acted Upon instead of the Actors. Get stabbed, cha-cha-cha, go to hell, cha-cha-cha, get torn up, be rescued, agree to a less powerful role in the universe, be resurrected, cha-cha-cha. All that nonsense about Yelm "attracting Orlantus with his justice" in GRoY strikes me as an enormous justification. Yelm got shoved around mythically, and there's no reason to think Shepelkirt didn't suffer the same fate. (Hell, same thing happened to little Teelo Nori, right?)
It just goes to prove that Orlanthi heroquests almost never turn out quite the way they're planned.

Think about it. Orlanth sets out to Heal the Universe and ends up resurrecting his own worst enemy. Do you really think that was his goal all along? (see enormous justifications above). He probably went to hell to get Genert or Glorantha or somebody, and Yelm was the best he could do. Was Harmast looking for Arkat? I doubt it. He was just looking for a way to off Lokywhatsisface. Which I'm not sure he ever accomplished. Two different Lightbringers quests and all he really manages is to get Arkat/Gbaji/Nysalor to mutually self-destruct. I'll bet Lokywhozits got off scot free.

Interestingly, this is exactly what happened in the Fall of Malan freeform. Malan and I (Maniski) both led full-on heroquests. Both were at best vaguely conceived rush-jobs. And neither one turned out the way we planned them. I wanted to give my fledging Karandali tribe legitimacy (not giving a fig about the problems in Malan's kingdom, couldn't see it from my house), Malan wanted to Heal the World by performing the Lightbringers Quest. (Although I still have no idea who he was trying to fetch from hell. Frohdi maybe?) Low and behold, we ran into each other, him seeing me as the Maggot Emperor, and me seeing him as Vadrus or Humakt (I was doing the Fight Your Brothers, Marry Ernalda, Prove You're King myths). In the end, neither of us got what we wanted. He brought me out of hell, and I ended up High King of Dragon Pass (with no authority, no lands, no tribe, no tax base, no nothing but a seven year appointment with the chopping block.)

Typical, really. That's what you get for putting Trickster on your ring and having a movement rune. Things never quite work out the way you planned.

And that's okay. Because We Won! Orlanth won, Harmast won, Malan and Maniski won, as so did Argrath. Maybe we went hunting for boar and came home with deer, but that's okay to the Orlanthi. 'Cause you still get to brag about being a great hunter. And more importantly, everybody gets to eat.

To summerize, was it all a Dragonnewt plot? Was Argrath just a tool of the Moon's evolution? Do we feel used? Don't know, don't care, and hell no. The Lunar Empire ended up on the scrapheap, Sartar Ruled the World (for a little while) and all was good. Pass the venison.