Re: Gods, Truth, and Chaos

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 17:02:04 -0500


> From: "Peter Metcalfe" <metcalph_at_hotmail.com>
> Subject: Gods, Truth and Chaos

    Since there's been something of an outcry again this thread, I'll make a few final responses and then let it drop.

> The existance of Yelm, Elmal and Kargzant giving differing
> answers is not sufficient?

    This can only be true if you make the assumption that this reality is subjective. I'm challenging that assumption, so this issue isn't really pertinent.  

>> Let's see.  We have Thed, the goddess of rape; Malia, the goddess of
>> disease; Thanatar the god (or gods) of headhunting and knowledge >stealing;
>> Urain, the god of senseless violence; [...]

>
> So? It does not follow that _everything_ chaotic is destructive
> and/or necessarily evil. All you have shown is that some chaotic
> gods are so but it does not follow that all of them must be. For
> example, I can list plenty of evil Orlanthi but it does not follow
> that all of them must be.
>
> BTW how do you explain the chaotic Red Goddess _not_ being
> destructive and essentially evil?

    I sure this may outrage a few people on the list, but I think the Red Goddess is corrupt. That's certainly the perspective on the Lunars in RQ2, and while I like a lot of the stuff that's been written on the empire and exploring how it thinks, I retain the sense that the Empire is based on corrupt principles.

    Either Chaos is inherently evil or it isn't. Either the Orlanthi are right and the Lunars are wrong, or vice versa. The two cultures hold incompatible beliefs on this issue. So the whole subjective issue founders here, because both positions cannot be true simultaneously. You've made an objective decision that Chaos is not inherently evil.  

>> Ompalam, the god of slavery and subjegation,

>
> Ompalam is not a chaotic deity. See the Glorantha: Intro for
> details on his followers. He's only described as "evil" in the
> RQ3 materials (RQ3 Book 5 and Gods of Glorantha), but then the
> people who studied this in detail (the God Learners) were also
> the same people whom Ompalam fought against.

I wasn't aware that he was retconned into being unchaotic. Where did this happen?

Andrew E. Larsen


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