I wonder what is hidden behind the sentence: "Sheng was defeated, killed and sent to a Lunar Hell, where Argrath rescued him and brought him to newlife".
Godlearnerishly I could argue that maybe when Shen was
defeated and killed, phisically, his entire soul was
not trapped. Why?
Because his cult continued among the Pentans and so in
a sense, a part of his being (the
immortal/worshippable part) was still free and alive.
But at that moment the worshippable/godlike Sheng and
the defeated/individual Sheng separated once and for
all.
So the Lunars merely trapped the minor/individual part
of the entity previously known as SS. They trapped the
part of Sheng as foe of the Lunar Empire. But Sheng
had greater goals (invade Kralorela, being a god,
dominate the world) and this parts the Lunars didn't
bother to catch/trap. They trapped a part of him and
nurtured it as part of their pantheon (an enemy god or
a demon), reshaping him with their fear.
This is my personal opinion: when a person is worshipped, in Glorantha, the cult and the man are two different things (because the cult is ultimately based on the worshippers, so is "molded" by their worshipping, while the man may be much different from the apothesized cult of himself and is mortal). The same is true when a person is seen as an enemy of a god/pantheon: his mythical self is molded by the anti-worshipping/hate of his enemies.
The LBQ (in the case of SS) didn't bring back the man Sheng or the Pentan God Sheng, but the Sheng that was trapped by the Lunars as they saw him, as an enemy and a threat to their Empire. The original man Sheng was part of the undistinguished mass of ancient spirits of the dead. The Pentan God Sheng was not dead (and not trapped by the Lunars). The Brought Back Sheng was simply "the Foe of the Red Emperor" regardless of the original Sheng's wishes and powers.
Ciao,
Gian
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #469
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