First of all, although Arkati secret societies were part of the effort that expelled the God Learner's, the longest lived societies stem from the end of the Second Age, and the fragmentation of the anti-GL coalition. It was the resistance to the GLs who imprinted the "Secret Societies are Good" mindset on the Safelstrans, combined with the mysteric nature of the Arkati mysticism.
Second, Glorantha is notably more conservative than Earth. If you add that the founder of a society can stay around to guide its development, for centuries. And some RW secret societies have lasted for centuries, in an evolving Technology that Glorantha lacks.
Don't forget that most Secret Societies are not Arkati (even if some are infiltrated and used as pawns by the same), so infighting and fragmentation is not the main problem.
>But these people are from modern times. We are talking about people
>with a less sophisticated and more devout mindset. It would be nigh
>impossible for a Byzantine Cleric to display the same mental agility
>as your Father's friend and embrace Nestorianism, Arianism, Iconoclasm,
>Monophysitism and standard orthodoxy for example.
True, but he could be member of a horse racing society, an oppositor against the Emperor's favorite, a semi-open iconoclast, and an aristotelian at heart.
If you saw my example, that was a man who would not touch an arkati with a long pole, and has had some experience with Secret Societies.
Another RW example. In Spain the Cofradias are groups that officially only exist to care for an image and march it openly at the Semana Santa (Easter) Rites. They march robed and masked (they look a bit as the KKK, but in technicolor), to avoid recognition (they are supposed to be penitents, and repenting sinners have the right to anonimity), but traditionally they will help each other, and this was even more important in past centuries. The oldest one in my home town, Saragosse, was founded in 1249AD, and most of them come from the Fifteenth century. Any original religious content is mostly gone, even if the original reason was religious. At first they were organized in Guild or Quarter boundaries, and soon they were forging ties with similarly named groups in other cities (as the name had its own implication). Last century some were used as masonic recruiting grounds, and they were the cover for political meetings this one.
We agree Arkati groups are small, localized and bickering. We will have to disagree with respect to the other Secret Societies, and the degree of self-doubt the arkati suffer.
Jose
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