Gloranthan Atheists

From: TTrotsky <TTrotsky_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 12:40:43 EDT


Richard Develyn:

<< Could someone please point me in the direction of any large groups of true atheists (i.e. not even Invisible God). I'm especially interested in any group which is a long way from any theists.>>

    There are four known atheistic cultures on Glorantha:

  1. The Brithini Although this is the culture from which Malkionism arose, the Brithini themselves are atheists, denying even the existence of the Invisible God. Their philosophy is concerned with pure logic. The Brithini live in scattered enclaves throughout the West (far from theists, but not far from Malkioni monotheists with their rationalist-dualist philosophy) and in the kingdom of Arolanit, which while surrounded by monotheists and mystics* is of significant size. Furthermore, a great number of Brithini still live on Brithos, which has been completely sundered from the mortal world and has no contact whatever with other cultures. By the same token, we know nothing about present-day Brithos (and whether they can see the sun or not) although we know quite a lot about its early history - for example in the Golden Age Brithos was the centre of the vast atheistic Kingdom of Logic, which covered about a quarter of Genertela. On the subject of death, the Brithini do not age and do not currently have children (Fertility rune) but they do die and have had children in the past.
  2. God Forgot A small colony of pseudo-Brithini of the coast of the Holy Country. They are atheists, and try to live like true Brithini, but do not succeed (they are also surrounded by theists). The people of God Forgot die just like normal people - fortunately they also have children.
  3. Mostali The dwarves are atheists, although many outsiders mistakenly think of Mostal (a word which actually means 'Maker' in Mostali) as a god. The Mostali are reductionists, believing that the universe is a great automatic mechanism analogous to clockwork. Most Mostali are isolated from outsiders, and they have some quite large kingdoms. The largest and most isolated of these is Slon, where the dwarves oppress a human majority population who also practice atheism along the Mostali model, in the hope of becoming more like their masters. Dwarves do not age so long as they remain loyal to their philosophy (which also preaches absolute obedience, and that all individual personalities must be subsumed into the rigid needs of society), but, of course, they can and do die in accidents, combat etc. They do have children, although gestation requires mechanical assistance.
  4. Vadeli The nasty, vicious, scheming, treacherous, back-stabbing etc. etc. Vadeli are also atheists. What they *do* actually believe has not been detailed to my knowledge (can anyone help out here). Most Vadeli live in scattered communities along the coasts of both continents and have at times had great political influence (e.g. in Fonrit). However, a significant number of Vadeli, including the great bulk of the Red Vadeli race live on isolated islands in the Neliomi Sea - their contact with other cultures (mainly Brithini and Malkioni) consists mostly of raiding them. AFAIK, Vadeli die and have babies in the same way as normal humans.
    • - judging from the latest Greg Sez myth, I view Aldryami as mystics - which makes sense to me, because that's more or less how I had already thought of them. Mystics (like the Kralori) don't believe in gods as such, but they aren't atheists in the sense that the four cultures listed are.

    If there are others, I can't think of them off-hand.

Forward the glorious Red Army!

    Trotsky


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