> Anybody know anything about Arroin? If only I had a MIG...
You might want to read last month's myth on the Issaries site (www.glorantha.com) -- Arroin is the healing waters, according to the elves.
MiG says that Arroin is in Cults of Prax and River of Cradles (presumably as the Chalana Arroy subcult). But I don't see what's stopping you from getting a Meints Index To Glorantha, a very handy reference.
Richard Develyn
> Now what you're saying here is that most of what they know is handed
> down through oral traditions, since I don't suppose many of them chat to
> dragons and giants. One has to start wondering how accurate any of this
> could be beyond a few hundred years.
Although I don't think most Orlanthi societies could be called literate, their wise men may well know how to read and write (i.e. Lhankor Mhy). [In one of our campaigns, we figure "Korol's Saga" was written down by the daughter of the lawspeaker; both of them knew how to read.]
I also think you overrate writing. As wonderful as it is to have written records such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it's often quite subjective and not always consistent with other evidence.
And you have incidents like the Incan king who was written out of history by one of his successors (who if I recall correctly was a brother). I guess the attempt wasn't completely successful or else we wouldn't even know of this...
> How does a Gloranthan know that a crystal is crystalized blood of the
> gods? Is the inspiring evidence really evidence?
How do we know that coal comes from smushed plants? Don't forget that Gloranthan magic includes a limited form of time travel: you can, through heroquest, travel to the land of the gods. You can witness great battles of the gods. At the same places you can see these titanic struggles, you find a larger concentration of crystals. I think the evidence is pretty good.
> What I'm trying to figure out is whether myths represent events in the
> past, or whether they reflect the needs of communities in the present.
To a degree, both. You're interested in the events of the past which relate to your present needs.
> So maybe in the Orlanthi case their myths are more historically accurate
> (possibly because they have had less of a need to change them?)
I'm afraid this isn't so. Harmast Barefoot was the first to assemble all the fragmentary myths into a complete Lightbringers Quest. And it's my understanding he left out some parts that were either too dangerous or politically inconvenient.
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Powered by hypermail