Re: Nature and Frontiers of Glorantha

From: Julian Lord <julian.lord_at_wanadoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 23:32:09 +0200


Simon Hibbs:

> >The mythic consequences, as well as the possible historic consequences of
> >death were altered. If your basic death mythology changes, then the way that
> >a culture thinks of death also changes, which in turn changes the nature of
> >death for that culture.
>
> When Yelm was killed and went to the underworld, Orlanth decided that he
> was wrong and realy ought to go to the underworld and put it right again.
> At that time, before he had done it, was it possible for Orlanth & Co to go
> to the underworld and bring back Yelm? To me, the answer is yes even though
> it hadn't been done yet. The Lightbringers either figured out or guessed that
> it was possible to do this, i.e. that it was 'in the nature of things' for
> it to be possible.

At the "time", Orlanth & co. still possessed Free Will, which helped tremendously. They couldn't do anything of the kind post-Compromise.

Doing something that hasn't been done before is Experimental Heroquesting (which the Orlanthi were *much* better at than the Dara Happans, BTW, which is why Yelm's mates didn't do it themselves: for a Yelmite, All Change is Bad; even un-killing your God Emperor ...).
* From the mythic POV, a GodQuest does something impossible. * From the mundane POV, it isn't impossible; it just hadn't been thought of until then. Which POV is correct?
Both and neither.

Does the old quote from Spock in one of the Star Trek films "Nothing impossible can be true." work in Glorantha? (anyone have a better source for this?
I *doubt* that it sprang forth spontaneously from Gene Roddenderry's <insert your favourite piece of anatomy here> ...)

*I* say that it doesn't, and that impossible events can occur in Glorantha, although they (probably) cease to be so after this occurrence.

> >*I* think that the idea of all death = Entropy during this period to be
> >a nifty cosmological mirror of this.
>
> You mean while the LBQ was being performed and the lightbringer gods were
> not available to their worshipers? Humakt was not on the LBQ, so I don't see
> why it should have any effect on the operation of death, even for the
> Orlanthi.

That's *exactly* why I said that :

> > methods for dying were basically the same pre- and post- LBQ ...

:-)

I mean that during the Greater Darkness, Bad Magic was Absolutely Horrible; Good Magic was Mediocre.
And I extend this concept to encompass the whole Gloranthan cosmos during the Greater Darkness. All Disease was Horrible, because every disease was a Plague, for instance. Death is Bad, therefore it was really Horrible back then, ie True Death. (oh, and let's not get started on the old good/evil dichotomy chestnut BTW; my conker is broken ... )

> >before the LBQ, there was just eternal, hopeless misery in
> >Hell.
>
> And there still is for many beings.

Certainly !!

> >Chaos has some sort of physical existence outside Glorantha.
>
> Ok, we appear to agree to differ on that one, as on many things.

Well, if I were to qualify that statement further, I'd say that there are portions of extra-Gloranthan space which have some sort of ill-definable existence which might be equated with a physical nature.
As an example of this, there would be certain kinds of demon. No proof of this, though.

Anyway, your POV is about right;
but it isn't, IMO, the only correct POV there is.


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