Sort of. Personally, I make the fine distinction between the Void - unlimited creative potential outside both the bubble and the laws of Glorantha - and Chaos, the same unlimite potential within the world but counteracting the laws of Glorantha, and hence ultimately destructive.
I guess that's why mostly mystics concern themselves with the Void - the trick with mysticism is not to use its powers, remember?
> If this were right (and IMG it isn't), would there be a Realm of Chaos or
> something alike?
In the sense of a portion of the hero plane: probably yes. There are enough terrible myths of dreadful chaos victories you might want to visit. Or rather might want to avoid...
IMO the end stage of the Yelmalio Hill of Gold Quest resembles such a place. The place you visit for I Fought We Won surely isn't too dissimilar from Moorcock's hero in the Elric universe who took the southern realms from entropy.
> What would it be like? Something like Lovercraft's
> Dreamlands? Could it be explored?
Probably has been. The Outer Atomic Explorers might, especially if you subscribe to Jim Chapin's amusing short story (somewhere out there on the web).
> Is only Chaos that can enter Glorantha, or would there be other things that
> could? Is (in view of this) Glorantha really a closed world?
Apart from the dragons, I'd say yes. Claims to visits from other planes by anything less I prefer to explain away (in case of Redbird, e.g. extensive Lunar treatment with Mindblasts or Madness for uncovering some spicy secret?).
> Would an alien
> to Glorantha, maybe a painted Pict from Earth, be sensed as chaotic?
Apart from my opinion that these don't occur, only if the means of transport give a taint. (In that case Broyan's Bat Slayers now would be chaotic, too?)
> If Chaos can enter the world, can something escape?
Dragons seem to be able to enter or leave the world. I have no idea where they go, though.
> Is Glorantha embedded
> in a larger universe, but confined by the Net and the sacrifice of its Gods?
Glorantha is a universe, separated only from the Void of unlimited possibilities. Since I don't have regular traffic to and fro, I never really considered there being a multiverse superstructure. Might be, but without travel, irrelevant.
> To preserve its purity from the taint of the outside (i.e. Chaos) they had
> to close it and lose much of their power. This may also explain why
> Glorantha's history is so impervious to change - each time something new
> appears, someone wants to change something, the world responds by restoring
> the previous order, God Learner and Lunar Empire included, Dawn excepted.
> And the perfect world is represented, AFAIK, in all cultures as the pre-Dawn
> world. Am I wrong?
While I won't judge that, at least I disagree with several of your conclusions.
Whenever there were upheavals (Sunstop, God Learners, Lunar Empire), the world after the cataclysms following these wasn't the same as before. General feeling says that it was worse than before the upheavals, though not as bad as could have been.
With every major cataclysmic cycle, Glorantha bleeds off reality to the Void. Not counting ongoing attrition. We're just lucky to be fairly early in the cycles...
Joerg (from work)
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