Sure, and in different directions, also. Where you go "after" pictograms is conditioned not simply by an inevitable historical process, but (among other things) by what your language is like. And contrariwise, there can be some effect in the other direction, too.
> So it seems pretty unlikely that they have all ended up
> at the same point in their writing systems.
Sure. But equally, even if they were all alphabetic (which I don't suggest) they wouldn't be all at the same point, either. That category hides the proverbial multitude of sins...
> There are, however, more places to stop between
> ideographs/logographs and letters than one end or the other. I think that,
> as in the RW, successful systems have tended to spread. In Glorantha, the
> Bright Empire should have had this effect, so should the Middle Sea Empire
> and, to a lesser extent, the EWF.
Note that some systems spread "better" than others. Syllabaries and logographic systems have obvious "issues" in adapting to whole new languages, even more so than the odd loan-word. (Obviously alphabets are not without their own complications, as a quick survey of a few mappings of the Roman (and modifications thereof) characters reveals, but it's significantly more open-ended and adaptable, as a rule.)
A popular sport is, who has rebus-writing, and who's logosyllabic? Come to that, who has a "pure" syllabary? I certainly see the East Isles as having a non-alphabetical script, and not an outright logographic one, so it (or they) could be any of the above. Pamaltela is bound to have a hatful of funky scripts, I don't doubt. If you want a Sanskrit analogue, maybe either Fonrit or Teshnos might serve... I still suspect Peloria has, or at least once had, a few more whacky types of script. What do (or did) they use in Rinliddi, for example?
> >I suspect it [New Pelorian] can be written both ways.
[Dara Happan alphabet and Wendarian(ish) glyphs]
> This doesn't seem too likely to me, or various literate people aren't
> going to be able to read each other's writing
Potentially, yes. Lots of fun! (Though note that in Japan, you're only "literate" if you know two systems which are about this distinct. (Indeed four, all told.) Conversely, Serbo-Croat is in much this position, being written in one of two different scripts (both alphabetic and with a common ancestor, admittedly, but still impressively perverse, you must admit.)) Being a smart-arse that knows both isn't that unlikely, but granted some people would only know one, or the other.
> (and remember, there aren't that many fully literate people).
True. The main culprits are the Buseri, who for reasons of both pragmatics and religious bigotry are going to use the DH alphabet. That's why I think it's logical that most use of the glyphs would be by the semi-literate, or the ostenatious.
> >> Pelorians, whose systems should resemble each other's more than they do the
> >> West.
>
> >Why? Their cultures are remarkably disparate, why not their writing
> >systems?
>
> Because you use what's close and what has developed to meet the needs of
> your language family. The cultures of Peloria are diverse, but they have
> more in common with each other than they do with the West or the Orlanthi.
Not sure how true that is. The Pelandans and the Dara Happans seem to be pretty radically different, though granted they've also had quite an influence on each other, one way or another. I don't think you can try and take the logic of adjacency too far. Look at China and Japan, just to confuse matters intensely; near neighbours, essentially the same script, _utterly_ different languages.
> Lastly, John Hughes reveals that the Orlanthi script is borrowed, but
> there is no idea from where. Sigh. Perhaps different places -- Ralios gets
> a relatively unaltered Western script, southern Manria gets something
> dreamed up by an Aeolian St. Cyril, the Aggarites use a Pelorian script,
> and so on....
That's largely what I was thinking. There's no "true" Heortling script, aside from a limited icongraphy for largely sacred purposes. Myths, law, and lineage are the main thing you need to 'record', and there the tradition would be largely oral, historically. Nevertheless, some people persist in writing to write down that which god never intended to be written down, and do it "phonetically" in whatever the dominant or most convenient writing system tends to be.
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