>"Invisible Orlanth" is a Malkioni heresy based on Invisible God worship.
>It claims that Orlanth is the "Invisible God Manifest", making explicit
>connection between "wind" and "spirit"--aka a "pneumatic" cult, so to
>speak. It combined heavy use of Sorcery with Air-related divine magic
>associated with Orlanth.
This is pretty much what I came up with in my campaign, too. IO is the first exhalation of the IG, and functioned like Metatron, the prime minister of heaven in Jewish mysticism. But there was a war in the heavens when one of the other Great Angels, the Bright One, the Sun Angel (think Lucifer) rebelled against the IG, claiming dominion over the earth. Offended, the IG withdrew from Glorantha, leaving IO (now acting like Michael) to battle Yelm the Betrayer. Eventually IO slew Yelm, plunging the world into darkness. During the battle, IO was injured and fell, forgetting his true place in the universe, as did a host of other angels. IO became Worlanth and ignorant humans worshipped him as a god. But Heaven's Justice still resided in IO, and he saw that the world would not be right until he forced Yelm to resume his original role. IO and six other fallen angels descended into hell and forced Yelm to resume his original duties. This is called the Great Compromise, since the absense of the IG made it an imperfect solution.
In recent time, however, the true nature of IO has been made manifest. The cult of IO, by worshipping Worlanth in an appropriate manner, hopes to return his memory of his true nature and reverse the fall. They believe this will restore the IG's breath, allowing him to once more "live" in the material world and restoring the perfection of Godtime.
SECRET: The Great Heresy of Yelm (Elihm, whatever) is being repeated by the Red Moon, his bastard daughter, who seeks Dominion over the world. Like Yelm, she must be slain, sent to hell, and healed (as the White Moon), and forced to resume her proper role in the heavens. Only then will the IG return to rule over a perfect realm.
>Chaos was still evil, since chaos opposes existence, and Invisible
>Orlanth champions existence.
Yep. Chaos is bad. So are traditional Orlanth worshippers, since they perpetuate Worlanth's sickness. They must be healed. One of the great debates among the handful of Secret Masters of the cult is whether to use the Orlanthi to heal the Goddess then heal them after she's dead, or to try to heal them first, before taking on the Goddess. Timing is everything!
>Arkat, of course, was a "hero gone wrong",
Arkat was an unmitigated disaster, another face of Gbaji. Every good IO knows that Saint Talar the Laughing Warrior defeated them both.
>but his fight against Gbaji of the Solars was considered to be the
>greatest and most important struggle of the First Age.
IMG, Saints Harmast and Talar are honored. Arkat is despised. Your Glorantha may vary.
"Breathe in Righteousness; Breathe out Justice!" Secret IO greeting, usually shortened to...
Breathe,
Robert
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