Rebellus Terminus and Tarsh from Richard, Jeff on 1997-10-09 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Richard, Jeff <Jeff.Richard_at_metrokc.gov>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 10:52:11 -0700

David Cake wrote:
>Which comes back to the perennial argument about what exactly
>consitutes a 'God Learner'. Identifying Rebellus Terminus with Orlanth (and
>Yelm as The Evil Emperor), while 'God Learning' by some definitions,
>happened in First Council days. By the late first age the Yelmic religion
>had learnt a few more things about their neighbours.

This is correct. It is well established that the priests of the High Council of Genertela (the Second Council) identified Yelm as the Evil Emperor AND that the priests of Dara Happa identified Orlanth with Rebellus Terminus (just check out GRoY). During the brief rule of the Golden Empire, it has been suggested that both gods were recognized for their deeds both positive and negative. A Compromise was struck between the two great mythic traditions.

This was not Jrusteli God Learning - but something rather different.

>Neither the Carmanians or the Blue Moon Trolls happen to rule the
>Lunar Empire. The Lunars (and to a lesser extent the Dara Happans) do.
>Sure, the various opinions of the various other factions within the Lunar
>Empire are important, but not as important as the Emperor.

If, as it has been suggested, the Dara Happans (initiated into the Lunar Way) are increasingly prevalent at the Imperial Court, then their cultural conceits will be increasingly important in formulating imperial policy.

>The motivations of the Tarshites are important - because they form the bulk
of the >army that actually attacks Dragon Pass, and because without Moirades Dragon >Pass might have escaped Imperial attention for years - but the reasoning of the
>Blue Moon Trolls, for example, doesn't really matter, because even if the
>Blue Moon Trolls didn't want to invade Dragon Pass, the invasion would
>still have happened (in contrast to the Emperor).

I fully agree with this. I believe that the motivations of the Tarshites in attacking Sartar was quite different from the motivation of the Imperial Court - perhaps radically different. Remember, the King of Tarsh was the acknowledged by the Quivini tribes as the paramount King for over a century, until the destruction of the Twins Dynasty. The Quivini and the Aldachuri (not to mention the Queendom of Holay and the Kingdom of Aggar) are rightfully clients of the King of Tarsh in the opinion of many Tarshites. This belief is probably not shared by the Dara Happans in the Imperial Court - indeed they might violently disagree with it.

Jeff