> >The point is that the Love/Life/Fertility/Uleria Rune
> >is the Primal source of all non-chaotic reproduction
> >in Glorantha (more precisely, in those parts of Glorantha
> >derived from the Gloranthan Court).
>
> I will not agree that she is *The* Primal source of reproduction in
> those parts derived from the Gloranthan Court. Quite contrary, EVERY
> member of the Gloranthan court had a method of reproduction, or of
> making a part of the world.
Yes, certainly. Words get a bit fuzzy though, at this level.
To make my own understanding of this a little clearer, I think that the GC wasn't so much a group of separate entities as the modern pantheons are, but rather a matrix of "Primal" forces that interacted with and partook of each other. So, each GC member was also a force for the cosmic destruction that destroyed the Court, of the movements that motivated it, the stasis that held it (and Glorantha) together, and the sub-creation that made it.
That is, it would be more precise to say that I believe that Uleria is the "Primal" source of reproduction, but not the *only* GC source, because the incarnations GC deities insofar as they can be understood as such are those of the end of the GC, when it was destroyed, and those beings had all lost their original purity.
I did say that there were exceptions to my belief.
To be even more precise, the so-called Primacy of these entities and their attributes is a myth (albeit a near-universal one).
In strict philosophical terms, I believe that the _tertiary_ causes of reproduction are derived from the _secondary_ cause of Uleria as she is known/reachable in GC mythology, but that there is a higher _primary_ cause, unknowable, that the other GC members also partake of, but in different ways (not-reproduction-per-se).
Ultimately there is of course a Primary, mysterious cause (the Creator) that Uleria is subject to, so ultimately I would agree with you.
But I think there is a meaningful distinction that can be made between reproduction and other forms of creation, making, growing, devolution, aggregation, crashing-together, flying-apart, whatever by the GC & its avatars.
I did not wish by my statements to imply that Uleria was the source of everything, except within the limits of such in-world claims about the Primacy of this Power as compared to that one, for example RQ2 p. 54. If my statements appeared to say otherwise, then mea culpa.
I only wanted to state that she is the source of that particular form of sub-creation, but that "reproduction" as a force is bound into certain Gloranthan processes that wouldn't be recognisably derived from Love/ Fertility/Life/Uleria despite their ultimate origin.
Although of course, to fully discuss this issue would require a very lengthy, difficult, and innovative analysis of Gloranthan alchemy beforehand.
In a nutshell, any Ulerian worth her salt would claim Uleria to be the Great Mother of Everything, as this belief is necessary to that particular worldview.
But she is certainly not the primal source of all sub-creation, and some forms of sub-creation would resemble "non-sexual reproduction" as suggested. Misnomer perhaps, but hey this is a game world, not a philosophy seminar !!
Julian Lord
--__--__--
Powered by hypermail