and
2: "Thats interesting you call the sun XXXX and we call him YYYY. No we don't have a myth about the contest of the wind and the sun, but we do know what happened when he met the rain god. Oh, your rain god is the wind god. Must be the same guy then, interesting I didn't know he'd done that, but it fits with this other myth we had. Oh, we thought that was his son, well I suppose 'son' could be an aspect of the god yes..." Result: Cross-fertilaization creating something that resembles both antecedent religions, but is not quite either of them.
Glorantha seems to have plenty of examples of both such experiences - although 2 seems more popular than 1.
Worrying about what is the true explanation in Glorantha for 'The Way Things Are' (how can Humakt and Shargash both be Death) will just make your head hurt. My attitude is a Platonic one: Gloranthan cultures are all looking at the shadows on the wall thrown by the fire, the truth is unknowable.
Ian Cooper
PS While I was never a fan of the Grecian Yelmalio in
a Germanic Orlanthi culture, one of the most
intriguing things about the introduction of Elmal and
the revision of Yelmalio is how it allows us to
explore the issues raised by 2 above.
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