> Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 22:35:52 +1000
> From: "John Hughes" <nysalor_at_primus.com.au>
> Subject: Re: Swords & Esrolia
>
> RUNE POLARITIES & HUMAKT IN ESROLIA
- -..
> There are two issues here for me; one is exactly how polarized "The Ten
> Ancient Polarities" actually are. That is, the opposed runes of
>
> Harmony :: Disorder
> Movement :: Stasis
> Fertility :: Death
> Truth :: Illusion
> Cosmos (Law) :: Chaos
>
> Given that these are Celestial Court powers, and that they "balance or
> contest to shape existence", I assume that they say something pretty basic
> about the facts of existence, either of themselves or in the descriptive
> systems that have evolved around them.And since these appear, in the main,
> to be unmediated powers, (how many major deities own opposing runes?) then
> if say a humakti is on a path to embody death, then you could strongly
> assume that powers and actions clustered around life/fertility/sexuality
> would fall away. There is *reason* to be frightened by Humakti.
- -..
Only if you consider Fertility to be an inherently good thing, and
Death to be an inherently bad thing. But that is quite wrong. Is
Movement or Stasis inherently bad? Is Disorder or Harmony? I'd say
that, like the Elements, there is NO inherent moral position on any
of the ten. Assuming that Death is considered inherently bad by
Heortlings is, I feel, projecting our own culture onto theirs.
Remember, as any Dara Happan will tell you, the principal Heortling
male god is a MURDERER.
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #102