Kralori and EWF

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 13:08:19 +1200 (NZST)


Colin Phillips:

>However I was fortunate to
>hear Greg comment about the EWF being a Kraleorian plan to bring about
>the destruction of the God learners.

>Are there any written sources that refer to this. Anybody got any info?

Hmm.

It's difficult to know what Greg is actually referring to here.

The published information is that the EWF starts up as a result of learning how to speak Auld Wyrmish from a Nochet 'God Learner'* School in c. 570 ST. This much is in the Genertela boxed set (book 1 pp 19-24).

There is another quote elsewhere:

        'Two great schools of investigation existed in the
        Second Age.  One originated in the far east and became
        a popular mystical religion which created new horizons
        of magic.  The political form of this religion was the
        Empire of the Wyrms Friend, the Dragonlords.'
                                Cults of Terror p19.

How to reconcile those two is the question at hand.

The 578 ST date for the foundation of the EWF can't be what Greg was referring to as the God Learners had not even formally organized themselves for another 75 years and I do not know whether they had discovered the Forbidden Secret at the time.

The conflict between the Kralori and the God Learners takes place over the years 720 to 767 ST and ended with the complete victory of the God Learners. After this, Kralorela is ruled by the New Dragons Ring who have an ambivalent attitude towards the God Learners.

It could be that the Kralori leaked some secrets to the EWF to help them fight the God Learners. The EWF does undergo several changes which ultimately lead to their downfall. However the earliest known change is the ascendancy of the 'Here-and-nows' over the 'Forwards' which seems to take place in 826 ST (mentioned in Griffin Mountain as being the date when the Third Council was established). This is far too late for the formation of the EWF by the Kralori however.

There is evidence for Kralori contacts with the EWF. It comes from the Cradle scenario. A report on the Cradle is dated c. 682 ST and is written in Old Pavic (which is actually the speech of the EWF at the time) and is thought to be written by a Kralori citizen. The only apparent evidence for this is that he curses by the name of 'Pharshtor' at one point.

Problems: 682 ST is long before the foundation of Pavis or even Robcradle for that matter. For this reason, I hadn't included the date in my Praxian Timeline. However the Pure Horse People were in Prax since 620 ST (Battle of Necklace Horse) and were trapping cradles before Robcradle was built, there could have been an EWF operation on the Zola Fel helping the Pure Horse People in robbing Cradles. These contacts would have taken place no earlier than 620 ST.

So my current take on this is that after having initiated contact with the Kralori Empire, the EWF received mystical wisdom that removed them from the materialistic basis of their knowledge (as taught by ye olde Nochet Auld-Wyrmish-as-she-is-spoke Schoole). This helped to preseve them from God Learner depradations as they became "a different mind, another set of rules" (p22 Glorantha Book #1).

It however led to their downfall as the Here-and-nows look like Bad Mystics who become entrapped in the material world (a la Sheng Seleris) and thus become all powerful at first but inevitably had their heads kicked in by the Cosmos.

*I've put God Learner in quotes because the term is anachronistic at such an early date. Some hypotheses to explain this may be found in digests _passim_.

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