I have to agree with Peter Larsen on this one (apart from the fact that he's my brother and could beat me up). I think there are real problems with the approach that each culture's truths are mutually true even when they contradict each other. That's a very late 20th century attitude which may work quite nicely for cultural and religious things, since we can't 'email' our diety or higher power for a direct answer. It doesn't work quite so well for scientific things, and it doesn't work so well in a world where the gods are immanent forces who can be appealed to for visibly magical effects. The considerable debate and confusion about the answer to Peter's question is a good sign that this approach doesn't work so well for a game system. Yes, each culture puts its own spin on various events and theological relationships, but when you get right down to it, the world has to have come from a particular place, regardless of how many different stories are told about it. The same applies to Yelm. There is one body which passes across the sky during the day. Different cultures might have different names and tell different stories about that body, and one might distinguish, as someone did recently, between the Yelm the Sun and Elmal the Solar Charioteer, but ultimately there can be only one thing up there going across the sky.
As a friend of mine recently commented, God Learnerism has spilled out into the RW Glorantha community.
Chaos is a good example of this. Is chaos evil and destructive to the world? Most cultures say yes, the Lunars say not necessarily. But clearly, I think, everything suggests that Choas is destructive and essentially evil.
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>> On the other hand, when a Lawspeaker and a Grey Sage are screaming >> at each other over the correct way to honor their god, what does the god >> say?
That's quite a trick.
Andrew E. Larsen
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