> The powers of the Great Runes are universally acknowledged.
> The deities who command those runes are the Greater Gods.
> Those deities cannot be changed without altering the very
> fabric of the universe. Such is against the Cosmic Compromise
> which begat Time, and cannot occur.
> RQ3:Book 5 p13 (p242 in softback edition)
[2nd quote removed for space]
Thanks, I hadn't found this myself. On the other hand, I think the definition may have changed:
Each culture usually has at least one great god or goddess, often the head of the pantheon. A great god has many areas of influence, including some form of kingship or other governance. The basic theistic worship is to a great god. A follower cannot usually devote himself to the great god as a single entity, he must devote himself to an aspect of the god. These aspects are equivalent to the other gods in power. (Hero Wars, p.175)
I think our problem is that there are (at least) two axes here, both of which are topped by "great gods." One is the earlier definition which describes gods of cosmological necessity. The other, more recent, idea is gods that can provide the core of a society. In both examples, Eric, the Shoemaker god of the Malani is not great (small, little, lesser?) while Orlanth is great. Humakt, on the other hand, is cosmologically necessary, but you'd be hard pressed to build a society on Him.
Now, I have a problem with the earlier definition -- are any gods "cosmoogically necessary" anymore? Orlanth is no longer really Air, he is the greatest Air god, sure, but there are wide sections of Glorantha that get by without Him. Even Peloria, which is not unfamiliar with the idea of Orlanth, finds other gods to handly their Air and Storm needs. Similarly, Humakt may be Death for the Orlanthi, but Pelorians die without Him, the People of Pamalltela die without Him, and the Brithini manage to not die without Him. Elmal and Yelm are boh the sun -- if Yelm were erased, the sun wouldn't go ou, although the Dara Happa would lose many vital things (Justice, Rulership, Fertility (maybe), Male Identity (for the nobles), and so on. I suppose all theist beings could vanish, and the animist and sorcerous cultures would get by just fine. With this in mind, how many cosmologically necessary beings are there. Uleria and Larnste seem to bridge all worldviews, so maybe they are necessary. It's possible Trickster does, too (assuming Eurmal is a face of Trickster and not really exactly a god), but is there any other forces that have the level of "vitalness" to be "great" under the older definition?
OK, that digression aside, I think we need more precise terminology. I'm proposing that great god be used in its recent sense (i.e. the core dieties of a society) while the older sense of cosmologically necessary forces be called "High Gods" (like the Mountain Gods of Pelanda, who seem to represent this idea well).
Peter Larsen
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