> Earth is undoubtedly a given but I'm not so sure about the others
> since Pamalt, the only known equivalent, has a mastery rune. Genert
> was an Old God thus he would have been more primal than Orlanth or
> Pavis.
Genert probably had runes something like Earth, Fertility and Mastery, according to the GL's. I argue, however, that runic classifications for a being like Genert (or Pamalt, for that matter) are essentially meaningless.
Genert was a giant and therefore "predated" the Celestial Court. I'm certain he was one of the survivors of the unknown war between the dragons and giants that took place before the gods were born. He existed before the Runes were expressed by the Court, like the major dragons. Therefore Genert was born of essences unlike those that made Glorantha, and thus could not be described by any Gloranthan runic system. Genert might have had aspects that were later categorized into a Runic system, probably by the G.L.'s, but ultimately, I suspect that any such effort would fail.
I suspect that there was a "Genert" rune, just as there is a "Pamalt" rune, simply because the God Lerner's couldn't explain all of Genert's essence with their neat litte categories. Pamalt was the same. This was a major failing of the Runic Logic, a sort of Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem. All truths could not be explained by their runic system. Genert seemed to contain both harmony and conflict, fertility and death and combined aspects of many of the elements. The dragons and the giants have always been wild-cards in Glorantha and do not adhere (in my view anyway) to the Runic behaviour patterns of "normal" gods.
All of this, IMG, of course.
Kind Regards,
Bruce Hollebone: hollebon (at) cyberus.ca
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