Carl Fink wrote about Issaries the Great God
I don't think Issaries is a great god but instead there's a "vacant position" for a great god of communication (similarly there is one for a great god of death or a great goddess of healing etc.)
Compare the two events:
- - Issaries killed in Fronela -> Syndic's Ban in Fronela
- - Orlanth chained in Dragon Pass 1621 ST -> Orlanth's Cyclone is disabled in
the whole of Glorantha. (this is from the Whitewall event Greg Stafford
hinted at on Hero Wars digest a few months ago)
This brings another idea: a great god of a power like communication would be much more awful than a great god of an element like Orlanth. Imagine that all communication be suspended in Glorantha. (It's nearly what happened in the West, when Brithos cut itself from all communication the shockwave likely triggered the Ban, the Closing and the Cult of Silence. But i'm digressing).
Actually i can't think of many such great gods. Donandar only embodies a combination of movement and harmony. Two examples could be Pamalt in the south, and Sedenya in the north.
Maybe part of what makes a deity great is the ability of its rune to embody and/or rule over many other powers besides: Orlanth's air also embodies movement, rulership, bagpipe music and the state of being a duck. Whereas Humakt's death embodies honor, but not hate which is ZZ's province.
Also, it's easier for an element to embody powers (air -> movement, fire -> truth), whereas it's difficult for a power to embody other powers (Pamalt & Sedenya do that IMO).
Uleria is different: she embodies all the aspects of union, but nothing else. For her i'd use the same rules as for Donandar, and would not be surprised if a Niskis worshipper could switch to Uleria in the same way that a musician can switch to Donandar. She's not a great goddess, rather a "high goddess". (so, whats a "high god"?... if i'm correct the high gods of the East or those of Pelanda maybe are not great gods). In a word, two opposite ways to get a measure of transcendence...
>Furthermore: if it weren't for the fact that Issaries returned from Hell as
>part of his Godtime activities, would it have been possible to end the Ban?
Yes, i like this! Isn't Dormal supposed to bring the Boat Planet back from hell in order to end the Closing? So, maybe if Issaries hadn't returned from Hell by himself, maybe ending the Ban would have required first side-stepping it with an "Opening" rite and then heroquest to resurrect the god of the silver feet.
>Did a notable Westfaring happen at the time of the end of the Ban? (For
>instance, was Dormal a Lightbringer?)
There are similarities but Dormal is not properly speaking readjusting the laws of the cosmos, he's rather trying to make them come back to what they were before. If you follow this though, he's not returned yet so his quest isn't finished and therefore he hasn't brought anyone back.
Dag Staalhandske's Humakt myth: good show!
Nils Weinander:
>I suppose that Avanapdur worship in Vithela was a scam, although
>well intended from the beginning.
Once you suggested Avanapdur created a False Path (and Alex Ferguson added: leading to a Short World). It makes sense that "religious scams" actually lead to Short Worlds? (then Zistor may come to mind too)
Er.. What is FoHD?
I haven't followed the recent threads very well, so i apology in advance if some points & suggestions above have already been raised (i hope not too many!!).
Jerome
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