>IMO the Outer Atomic Explorers set out to prove the Unknowable in a
>materialist sense. It may have been their findings which made the basis
>for the Silence movement in Umathela.
There is a 600 year gap between the Outer Atomic Explorers of Seshnela and the Wordless Prophet of Umathela not to mention an ocean in the way. I thus find the linkage to be weak.
Based on what I've seen in an early edition of World of Glorantha (which didn't make its way into Missing Lands because it was only a couple of notes or it may have been sheer crapola), the origins of the Silence Movement had its roots in the suppression of the Forbidden Secret by the Knowlege Assasins.
Basically the assasins took a geas to keep silent about the Secret. The geas had the effect that if they changed their mind and decided to blab about the Secret, then they couldn't do so for a period equal to the time they had kept the geas. ie if I bribed an elf in 1620 who had taken the geas in 1020 (say) then he wouldn't be able to tell me the secret for another 600 years.
Most of them were killed in some battle long ago but some were known to the Umathelans and their secret was mistakenly interpreted as a sign of piety which was then imitated. Some trolls IMO may have also picked up the habit for the cult is said to have been spread across the species according to RQIII book 5.
The weak point in this theory is that elves don't live that long. One could posit that the knowlege of the Secret made them immortal...
>BTW Silence: could the idea behind the Silence have been to recreate the
>state before the world was remade? After all, Zzabur faced the problem
>of a silence when he participated in I Fought We Won.
I think the Cult of Silence was attempting to reach the Silence which is an Orlanthi interpretation of the origin of the universe. The Wordless Prophet would have known of this since Orlanthi are plentiful in Umathela.
According to the Jrusteli, The Silence was turned inside out to become Howling Rage, the Mountain Stabber. This may be the same entity as Jotimam (of ToTRM#8 fame). Thus I doubt that the Silence of the Orlanthi was the Silence that afflicted Zzabur.
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