What is the difference between a pot and an illusionary pot? The illusionary pot is temporary, that is, it will cease to exist sometime in the future. But all pots will cease to exist in the future, since pots are fragile and inevitably eventually break. Are all pots illusionary? Similar statements can be made about ALL objects in Glorantha.
A Glorantha mystic would contend that all pots are, indeed, illusionary, and indeed might talk about breaking pots in a sermon. All well and good for the mystic, but animists, theists and sorcerers need to be able to produce theories and ideas about illusions that are just as good (that is, water tight) but which do not concede that mysticism is true. That is, the other types of magician must be able to defend the idea that there IS a difference between illusion and reality. How might they do so?
Pots are indeed temporary, but their breakage is not spontaneous. They break as the result of an active force (e.g. impact with Hard Earth). Perhaps non mystics contend that all True (non Illusionary) objects are eternal if left alone, but can cease to exist as the result of some power applied to them. Perhaps it is significant that Death/Endings, Change, Void and Disorder are reified as runes in the GL system. Illusionary objects would be considered as having some internal timer or expiration date; when the timer expires, the object spontaneously ceases to exist (Do illusionary Helerings dream of illusionary sheep?).
If it were possible to detect an Illusion (which Greg now says is impossible, right?), presumably the presence of this 'timer' would be what was detected.
The possible connection between Illusion and Endings is interesting. Perhaps there is more to the story that Trickster showed Humakt Death than first appears.
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