Even more Chaos, Myth or Math? from Chris Bell on 1999-04-15 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Chris Bell <argrath_at_xsite.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 21:27:48 -0500

>
>Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 16:23:28 +0100
>From: simonh_at_msi-uk.com (Simon Hibbs)
>Subject: R: Chaos is a bad, bad thing!
>
>Alexandre Lanciani :
>
>>I'm sparse on the info about the Wild Healer of the Rockwoods, but I do
>>know there are Chaos cleansing rites that enable Broos and some other
>>creatures to be cleansed without Illumination (such as the Cleansed One
>>subcult of Zola Fel.)
>
>To be precise, there are some Gloranthans who believe that it is
>possible to cleanse a chaotic creature of it's chaoticness. That does
>not necesserily make it so. IMHO the Zola Fel cultists are wrong.
>Perhaps the Broo known as the 'cleansed one' was in fact illuminated?

That's kinda a straw man, Simon. MGF, if that's what rows your boat. It would kinda suck if Zola Fel was wrong (and Greg's writing was an outright a lie. But then, Greg *is* Nysalor...)

>As for the Wild Healer, it turned up in a game I was playing in,
>in which I was playing a trollish Xiola Umbar priest. I immediately
>drew weapons and attacked, only to be struck unconcious by the
>traitorous humans accompanying me.

Very Uz reaction. Stoopid Hoomans always fooled by Chaos! Uz should have eaten hoomans, and flayed broo for drums!

>Everyone knows the Wild Healer is a broo. Everyone knows it lives
>among it's fellow broos and other assorted chaotic nasties. I could
>have killed it there and then! The way I see it, if the Wild Healer
>heals any of it's fellow chaotics and saves it's life, and if that
>chaotic kills a single troll, then those pesky Brooloving human
>do-gooders have the blood of that troll on their hands!

I don't have Griffin Mountain, but AFAIK the WIld Healer hid her nature and *avoided* Broos. I could be wrong, tho. Also, most sane *humans* will attack Broos on sight, regardless if they're cleansed of Chaos or not ("We can't take chances!")

>On reviewing the situation, I just noticed a certain amount of
>parallel between this situation and the Lead Cross Quest. Hmmm.
>
>
>Simon Hibbs
>

Where does the Lead Cross quest appear? Yeah, this is one time where a Humakti could get away with it in a socially *acceptable* manner.

>
>Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 16:41:55 +0100
>From: simonh_at_msi-uk.com (Simon Hibbs)
>Subject: Re: Chaos vs. Evil
>
> Morgan Conrad, quoting me :

<<Snip previous comments about Chaos>>

>You won't find these opinions explicitly stated in this form in the
>Gloranthan corpus. After all if I could I'd just quote it instead of
>having to write it myself. But then, you could say that of most of the
>stuff posted to the digest.
>
>
>Simon Hibbs

Or from the Web Page. For a good (and Canon) intro to Chaos from a Theyalan/Orlanthi perspective, check out

http://www.glorantha.com/library/world/chaos-index.html

This page and the ones linked to it give a good overview of how the Orlanthi and other Theyalans view Chaos. I believe that most of the material is from Cults of Terror.

>Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 10:13:03 -0700
>From: David Dunham <dunham_at_pensee.com>
>Subject: Re: clans; math

<<My old pal Dave quoting me:>>

>Chris Bell
>
>> Glorantha is a world of Myth, not Math.
>
>Hah! You pagan, you, you, barbarian!
>
>Don't forget that the Malkioni see the hero plane as a place of Platonic
>ideals, not as an action adventure like you Theyalans do. Thus proving that
>Glorantha is in fact a world of math.

ROTFL! Very good, Dave!
I think it might be more accurate to have the Malkioni believe that the Godplane is a world of *symbols* (The Runes) while the Mostali see it as simply the level of Reality that contains the basic equations of the World Machine. To the Mostali, it would be Math! :)

Best to all,

Chris Bell