More Godtongue

From: Julian Lord <julian.lord_at_hol.fr>
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 22:19:01 +0200


Benedict Adamson :

> [In a previous 'Digest Julian Lord said Godtongue is the language the gods use
> between themselves]
> The confusion I have here is that hero questers become their gods. So a group
> of hero questers speaking to each other are talking in Godtongue, or
> have not entirely become their gods, or Godtongue does not exist. Which is it?

No, the Heroquesters have NOT become their gods IMO. They are acting out, or roleplaying, the parts of their gods, which isn't the same thing.

Then again, the gods are manifest in the Heroquesters, so there is a certain confusion as you suggest, but the Heroquesters themselves perceive their own actions as avatars with mortal senses, and with their own cultural biases, and understand these events in terms of their own languages. If the gods spoke to each other in Godtongue through the agency of the heroes, the heroes would hardly be able to even *perceive* any such thing, let alone comprehend it.

Actually, the existence or non-existence of Godtongue is of no consequence whatever to anyone's Glorantha. No PC can have Godtongue 34%, I think. Hardly any NPC either. Perhaps Harrek the Berserker knows some, maybe Arkat does. Possibly not. It seems highly unlikely that any player character should ever need to roll against his skill in Godtongue. How, exactly, could such an event take place?

Godtongue is IMO needed only for the interactions of NPCs (gods) between themselves, ie it _isn't_ needed !! Or it doesn't exist at all. The distinction is irrelevant.

I myself prefer to think of Godtongue as a real language, precisely because it is unnecessary and irrelevant, despite also being a logical necessity (the gods did speak with each other before the creation of Pappy Mortal and mortal languages).

It's absurd, it's a paradox, and I like it that way.

Godtongue cannot be demonstrated.


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