>>It sounds very Godlearnerish, since she isn't associated with music in any
>>way, except for Comfort Song.
>
>Harmony is not music. Umath defeats the Predark demon Howling
>Void with the Harana Ilor in the myth of the "First Harp" yet
>when he does so, it's implied that he's using it as a sword at
>the time. Only afterwards is the power of Harana Ilor is stored
>in Howling Void's breastbone and is recognized as a harp.
>
>Hence I don't think it's worthwhile to retcon Chalana into
>being associated with harps.
I'm getting this from the 2nd ed Runequest book, where it describes the Harmony rune as being the Strings of the Original Harp, or something like that. I don't think it's a particularly useful idea, for the obvious reason that harps or music in general aren't particularly associated with most of the major Harmony dieties. But I wanted to find out if there might be some myth or something I'm unaware of on this point.
>>Since other gods also have the Harmony Rune,
>>but she still owns it, presumably others have borrowed the Rune from Harana
>>Ilor or gotten it from Chalana Arroy.
>
>I don't think it helpful to view runes as its holder's
>property and that everybody else with that rune must
>have explicitly obtained it from the holder.
>
>For example: the Hunter Gods have the runes of death and harmony.
>In all the myths of the Hunting Gods that we have (Foundchild,
>Zong, Orogeria and Kenstrata), there is not one mention of them
>obtaining their killing powers from Humakt or their Harmony
>powers from Chalana Arroy.
But most other Death-rune holders got their association with it by borrowing or using Death at some point, according to their myths. It seems improbably that Death was the only rune passed around this way (indeed, the Trade rune gets passed around a bit). So in some cases at least, it is helpful to use this approach. Many dieties get their runes from their parents (Issaries gets both Harmony and Movement this way, and Lankhor Mhy gets both of his this way), so there's some idea that runes gets acquired by contact with others who have them.
>> Additionally, she also has Life, which is still owned by Uleria,
>>which means to my mind that she must have drunk from Uleria's cup at some
>>point.
>
>Uleria has a cup? I think that Chalana would get her powers
>because she is the daughter of Glorantha and not because she
>has borrowed, begged or stolen from Uleria or Harana Ilor.
Again, 2nd ed Runequest describes the Life/Fertility rune as a cup, and while I don't think the Harmony rune as harp image is terribly helpful, I do think that the Life rune as cup is kind of interesting. While the idea that 'current' owners pass on their runes to others isn't very meaningful, I think that there is a stronger meaning in the idea that Uleria as the source of the Life rune must somehow pass on her rune to others who now have it. Otherwise, why bother talking about some dieties as the 'source' of a rune?
Plus, I like the idea of a quest to drink from Uleria's cup. I think it's a good mythic image that can played with in a lot of ways, like the Quest for the Holy Grail.
Andrew E. Larsen
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