Tessele

From: IUL Labor <IUL-Schleswig_at_t-online.de>
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 10:08:30 +0200


Michael Cule answering his own question...

> All right, I've managed to dig out the references to Tessele the True from
> my pile of Glorantha stuff. She's a First Age Heroine of the Cult of
> Aurelion (as it then was) and she has the most bodacious Heroquest which can
> actually undo the 'total destruction by Chaotic Entropy' that we were talking
> about recently.

>From what I know of her, she's from Caladraland (was present in the
Silver Age and when Arkat came, i.e. prior to the God Learner twinning with the Jrusteli volcano cult - worshipped by whom, BTW?).

And, to quibble, if she can undo the destruction by Entropy, it can't have been total, can it? (If it had been total, she wouldn't have been able to remember what to undo...)

> According to the Caladraland write up in TRADETALK (which may or may not be
> canonical)

I haven't checked with Greg, yet, since other stuff is more urgent.

> her periodic reappearances seem to give the Stamp of Sacred
> Approval to political and reform movements in Caladraland and maybe the
> Holy Country as a whole.

That seems to be her Truth rune function.

> According to Greg's fragment of Pharonic memoir (which had better be
> canonical) she seems to be something more important than that. From the
> way Belintar is gloating over having her on his side she may just be
> some sort of embodiment of the Truth Rune. Hmmm. Very odd.

Is it, with other known manifestations of runes in the region (like Sartar, master of Change, or Cragspider and her tangle with Fate)?

> Obviously her legend has been rewritten by the God Learner reforms that
> created Caladra and Aurelion as a unified cult: it seems likely to me
> that she wasn't rescuing her Twin but maybe her lover.

I tend to agree.

> Perhaps it was the presence of her HeroQuest that made Aurelion's cult
> seem a useful property to the God Learners.

The way I see it, the God Learners had extreme familiarity with Aurelion's cult from back home and used that to project their knowledge of the Caladra cult. I'm not even sure Caladra was regarded as female before their meddling...

> And I wonder.... Perhaps Belintar is connected to her because he too has been
> destroyed and brought back to Glorantha.

First and foremost, Belintar has ties to all of the Silver Age heroes of the Holy Country, some more friendly than others (e.g. the Only Old One would be not so friendly). It is quite possible that Belintar used powers learned from Tessele to cheat at the Esrolian sacred king rites, but his mastery of Luck and Death seems to be an intrinsic ability.

> Perhaps he was one of the Gods lost
> during the Chaos War and brought back. Or perhaps, given that her HeroQuest
> Path seems to reverse the normal 'chronological' sequence of GodTime this is
> more evidence in support of my favourite idea: that the Pharoh is a time-
> traveller from Glorantha's future.

When asked about the Pharaoh, Greg said something like "he's been around since the Gods Age". IIRC he was a companion of Genert or Tada.

> That would also be supported by the fact that
> he knows with a fair accuracy when he's going to vanish and leaves scrolls
> behind in anticipation of that.

So does the Red Emperor in his conflict against Sheng, or Godunya in his struggle against the False Dragon Ring. Not to mention Isidilian of Dwarf Mine.

Intimate knowledge of prophecies and mythic cycles is not necessarily related to time travel.


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