<< When the DH [Emporer] was a god, a faction that would deny his godhood would surely fail. After he lost its godhood, the faction that defended its godhood would fail.>>
So how did he lose his godhood? Remember, the denial of the DH Emporer's godhood was an entirely human response to the perceived abuses of the Nysaloran era - or so it appeared to observers. Furthermore, the new Yelmies believed that their predesesors had actually been wrong to worship the Emporer (post-Manimat at any rate, if not earlier), not that there had been some change in his status.
<< Remember: time is not an empty concept without mythical influence. It conditions how mundane creatures deal with the divine. From the POV of the divine which is not subject to time,>>
I'm not so sure that Dara Happan gods aren't subject to time. This makes sense for the Orlanthi, who have legends of a 'Godtime' of mythical simultaneity, but the Dara Happans believe that time predates the gods (or at least, they did in the First Age, I don't know if they've changed their mind since).
<<I suppose that there is no god-digest_at_glorantha.com... in Glorantha >>
And if there were you think this would *reduce* confusion and dissension? :-)
<<Simon Hibbs: > Instead they just watch the war continue, and then
mysteriously
> wipe out half of their potential followers, but right up till that points
> they continue answerign their divinations, granting them magical
> powers, etc?
Point #1: your examples work FOR my argument, not against it. They show that gods can intervene in the mundane plane sustaining a faction of followers against those that staied away.>>
I believe Simon's point is that the god is also apparently sustaining a faction of followers that *did* stray away, and continues to do so right up to the point where one side or the other loses. Presumably you're arguing that while this may appear to be what happens, in reality the powers are coming from somewhere else. So the question is, where?
<< There is no space for ambiguity FROM THE GOD'S POV. Mortals may misunderstand what's happening, they may see a contradiction where from the god's POV there is none.>>
I don't see how this works in the case of heresies that are, indeed, proven to be such. In this instance, the heretics are believing something that at no point has been true, regardless of the god's relationship to time. Yet, if the heresy is at all succesful (and I admit that many aren't) this is because the heretics still *apparently* have the support of their deity until they get squished.
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