Re : Entropy

From: Simon Hibbs <simonh_at_msi-uk.com>
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 10:45:03 +0100


Julian Lord :

>Simon Hibbs:
>
>Errmm ... remember : this is a *theory* about what *might* have
>happened. That is, I am aware of the source material, and I believe
>that the theory doesn't contradict it; whether you accept it or not
>doesn't really concern me.

Sorry, but that wasn't me.

>> >hmmm. Death resulted in permanent loss of the individual, until this
>> >was changed by the LBQ? ...
>>
>> Hardly permanent then.
>
>Creative heroquesting can change the nature of reality. Therefore, in
>Glorantha, anything permanent is mutable.

I don't think this is true in the sense in which you mean it. I do not believe that heroquesting is capable of doing _anything_. There are limits to what it is possible to achieve.

In this particular sense, chaos is capable of annihilating it's victims. No heroquest can bring them back. It may be possible to heroquest to create a simulacrum or functional equivalent, but that's an entirely different thing.

>> "Though inured to death, the Storm Age was shocked the way the Golden
>> Age had been shocked. True Death, divine entropy, sent some gods into
>> flight, some into inertia, some into more rabid defense."
>>
>> So death was one thing, but the True Death that consumed Genert and
>> Yamsur was something different, something new.

>Well, why were they shocked "the same way" then?

Because they were again confronted with something new and shocking which they had not encountered before. If someone pulls a knife on me I am shocked. If they pull a gun on me instead I am shocked the same way. That does not mean that guns and knives are the same thing.

>But the LBQ *changed* the nature of death.

That's a new one on me.

>Post-LBQ death being death with an After Life; Golden Age death
>being death which leads to some sort of existence in Hell;

Er, there's a difference?

In the compromise, the powers of Glorantha agreed to limit themselves to their current mythical roles and spheres of influence. Death was one of these. I don't see any noticeable difference pre or post compromise. Likewise with the LBQ. Yes the LBQ made ressurection possible after death, but death itself still works exactly the same way.

>True Death (aka Entropy) being Annihilation of the essence.

Now _that's_ different!

>> A clear distinction is made between gods who are Gloranthan in nature
>> and Wakboth, who by implication is not Gloranthan in nature.

>The extra-cosmic origin of Wakboth isn't debated.

And in my view is therefore unnatural.

>I believe that Wakboth had a divine essence. That other Gloranthan
>entities resemble Wakboth, and are divine in nature, supports rather
>than infirms this belief.

However Walboth is not Gloranthan in the same sense that an alien visiting earth would not be terestrial, so whatever essence he may have it isn't Gloranthan in origin or nature. Therefore characterising it as divine is at least highly speculative.

Simon Hibbs


End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #580


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