What I tried to point out before was that IMO the attitudes of Illuminates
and God Learners were opposite enough that God Learners would not have
understood the idea at all - only to categorize it. But J=F6rg's note:
>I'm a bit puzzled about how the God Learners came to learn about the=20
>secrets of creative heroquesting ("heroquesting outside of a specific=20
>cult myth", as Greg puts it in the Elder Secrets appendix on Heroquesting).
cave me some ideas.
I assume that you mean that Jrusteli would have found out about HeroQuesting by their trading and other connections with the Arkat's Empire. Seems somewhat plausible.
I also assume that 1st Age Jrusteli ideology is not know (and if is, I have not seen the source) but if they had even the vestiges of a God Learner Myth-Materialistic worldview, they could have actively supported Arkat. Maybe they considered Nysalor a threat to themselves, thought that Illumination was so alien they could not tolerate it either. Then, remaining neutral, they supported the side they considered a lesser evil; Nysalor was a pagan/false god and Illuminated. Arkat was, in the beginning, a Malkioni of sorts. Historical and modern-day parallels could be found.
We can also assume that some Jrusteli even fought for Arkat (I do not know how feudal their society could have been but local parallels of disinherited younger brothers come to mind) and learned something about Arkati heroquesting. Maybe they returned to their lands after the whole conflict was over and found their own Arkati cult. They may have been an insignificant minority and therefore disregarded in the annals.
Then came the God Learners who used their myth-materialistic ideal and Arkati cult secrets they used for their own nefarious pusposes. Maybe "They know dangerous secrets and are potential _threat_ to the People. In the interests of Jrusteli security they must be investigated and expurgated". Maybe Jrusteli state needed money, badly, and used hapless Arkati as scapegoats. Hero Plane - what a potential for lebenstraum.
Whatever the reason, some of the secrets could have been made public for propaganda reasons. The knowledge about the real reason for the trouble was destroyed alongside the rest of the God Learner's secrets.
>I guess he earned his Illumination when he had killed Nysalor and Gbaji.=20
>If it _was_ Arkat who emerged... Arkat the Deceiver, anyone?
IMO, neither. In my HQ theory, that meeting was the Acceptance of Shadow, thought probablky a forced one. The resulting person/creature that emerged from the tower was the amalgamation of Nysalor and Arkat.
Peter Metcalfe
>Also the Isle of Trowjang is shown being allied to the God Learners.
That probably means that Trowjang was also, at the time, under the rule of New Dragon's Ring. However, IMO, the situation with Tolat and Trowjangi has been somewhat too, ahem, convenient. Suppose that the New Dragon's Ring gained their allegiance by "assigning" a new method or reproduction.
(Another option: "Hey, what are we gonna do with that lout Dolad; the bugger has gained all too much power and all he does now is fighting and whoring!". "I think we have a partial solution; there's that island full of women without men and we need their help. Maybe we could give him a assignment he _really_ likes". IMO, the fellow was eventually caught by short hairs indeed... :-) )
And that's _IMO_. So there.
Vesa Lehtinen
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #409
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