The _defined_ pantheon is a God Learner construct though the worship
of the various deities is not. All the GLs did in most cases was to
clarify
relationships and to link various groups of deities together.
On Arkat:
>Regardless of what side you take (Obj or Sub), IMO while Arkat developed=
>the HeroQuesting skills that enabled him to defeat Gbaji, I disagree wit=
h
the
>notion that Arkat was capable of the kind of manipulation you describe. =
We don't
>really see this kind of manipulation until the God Learners appeared. =
Arkat was
>always able to Quest into Myth to gain powers and tools, but he was not
the
>changer, but the changed, in most cases (except for the changes of death=
and
>destruction he wrought upon Gbaji and his followers.) I feel that the G=
od
Learners
>discovered their special magic on their own, although thet definitely
built upon
>Arkat's HeroQuesting techniques.
Arkat wasn't a changer?!?!?!?!? I suppose destroying Tannisor, creating =
a Rallian Empire, becoming King of the Trolls when they were a matriarcha=
l
society, becoming leader of the Orlanthi, destroying the largest Empire o=
n
Glorantha and creating a mirror empire in its place and basically using =
everyone he could to get to his goal doesn't count as change.....
Arkat wasn't just a heroquester, he was a politician and a general. He w= as
a priest and a wizard. His depth of skills was astounding and his plans
far
reaching. His understanding of various myths led him to his powers which=
he wielded to great effect. It wasn't his personal power that defined hi=
m
(though
this was immense), it was his ability to forge new alliances out of
completely
divergent folk to achieve his goal. =
The God Learners largely dicovered their powers on their own, this is tru=
e
but this was a outpouring of the mythic experimentation and curiosity tha=
t
led to the likes of the EWF in the second age. Since then everyone knows=
that curiosity killed the cat....
BTW the GLs destroyed the Dark Empire of Arkat precisely _because_ it was=
as competant as they were at mythic manipulation. It was a major competitor.
>One area where perhaps we can find common ground is that HeroQuesting an=
d
>God Learner style manipulation do not truly change the nature of the God=
s,
but
>merely our perception of them :)
"_Merely_" our perception of them? What else is there? If they are percieved by =
us in a certain way then that is what they are. A deitiy is defined by i=
ts
worship. In
Glorantha such worship creates reality - this is a significant divergence=
from the
RW which makes it so interesting. Heroquests are used by all people to
"better"
understand their deity and this constant low level of use creates diverge=
nt
beliefs
over time.
I suggest you read Jeff Richards article on Heroquesting in Enclosure to
see
more on this.
Martin Laurie
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