"Outside"

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_csi.com>
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 22:39:03 +0100

Julian writes:

> If the Devil came from outside Glorantha, then it _isn't_ a
> closed world, contrary to recent suggestions ... :1-)

A "closed world" means an internally-consistent setting. The opposite (which I'm not sure is called "open" -- "crossover", maybe; I can't recall the term that would commonly be used) is a world where characters (etc.) from outside the context of the setting can enter into it.

Some examples of how this might occur in Glorantha would be:

• a D&D player-character turns up in Glorantha;
• a viking dragonship steers off-course into the Banthe Sea;
• a Granbretanian sorceror-scientist uses some technological device to cross between the planes of the multiverse;
• an away team from the Starship Enterprise beams down to Snakepipe Hollow;
• a CoC Gate connects Miskatonic University to Festering Island;

etc.

Since Glorantha defines Chaos as "that which comes from outside Glorantha", for as long as Gloranthan Chaos fits this definition, Glorantha will remain a closed world. Only if things which are not recognisable as Gloranthan Chaos enter into the world from "outside" does it lose this status. Wakboth eminently fits the Gloranthan setting; Sauron's Ringwraiths do not. Creatures which *act* like the Ringwraiths would be fine; creatures which *are* them, aren't.

IMO a "closed" Glorantha precludes inclusion of any entities from worlds which aren't part of the Gloranthan scheme of things: individuals from mortal lands which aren't part of the Inner World (Gondor, Hyboria, Poictesme, Melnibone, Britain...), or members of non-Gloranthan species (Hobbits, Orcs, Quenya, Klingons...), would obviously breach the "closed-ness" of Glorantha, as there's no room for such places and peoples in Gloranthan cosmology, geography or history.

Individual non-Gloranthan *monsters* are kinda OK, because (1) they're fun, (2) there's lots of them, and (3) if you say they're chaotic, who cares anyway? But once you give them a culture, species, history, (etc.) which *aren't* Gloranthan, you've again opened up the world.

If you *want* to have Melnibonean sorcerors, Dunedain rangers and 24th-level half-elf warrior/wizard/rogues in your Glorantha, *of course* you can have them. But one wonders what makes you think you're still playing in Glorantha after you do these things.

(FWIW, another profoundly closed world, MAR Barker's "Tekumel", also had early flirtations with "open-ness". IIRC, there's a solitary hobbit languishing in the freakshow corner of the Avanthar Zoological Gardens, relic of a misjudged attempt at hybridising genres).

Cheers, Nick

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