> How do you view Glorantha, as a now or as a then?
>
> I prefer to view it as a then, with all source material coming to us as
> fragments and interpretations of fragments from a place and time both
> long distant.
Well, King of Sartar clearly answers the question: yes.
Argrath's Saga is obviously "then." But the Report on the Orlanthi is obviously "now" -- it's intended to be a contemporary document.
I guess I treat it more like a now, in that I don't know what's going to happen next (even when I run a game in the 1580s). I may have a few events (from the "then" documents) I expect to happen, but PCs can almost always change this.
Ian Whitchurch asks
> Why cant Orlanth and the Red Goddess co-exist ?
I believe they can (even if they tend to be opposed). I think it's likely that High King Rascius is a devotee of both Orlanth Rex and the Lunar pantheon (I'd guess Seven Mothers).
Certainly the Lunar Empire has expanded into Orlanthi areas for quite some time, but I think the rabid anti-Orlanthi sentiments typical of the 1620s are a fairly recent phenomenon, perhaps two generations old (Martin Laurie probably recalls the details better than I). Once again I point to Aggar, part of the Lunar Empire despite being full of Orlanthi. This is because it was incorporated during a more tolerant time.
The bit about "the Red Goddess isn't part of the Compromise" could be desperate theologizing on the part of a defeated Sartarite populace, trying to explain their defeat by the fact that the Goddess cheated.
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
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #262
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