>Okay. Back in the RQ days, there were runes, and that was it. Now, with
>HW/Q, lots more runes clearly exist.
>Are these runes universal, however? E.g., in RuneQuest a Sartarite
>"spirit" rune was a Pelorian rune was an uz rune was a Hsunchen rune,
>et. al.
I know this isn't the main thrust of your post, but even in the RQ era it became apparent that the runes we read about in RQ were a simplified system tought by the God Learners. An article in Wyrms Footnotes #3 talked about different runic systems and variants in other parts of Glorantha, for example.
I think on problem is that we see idealised printed versions of the runes. Printing is unknown in most of Glorantha, so instead our Zong and Odeyla hunters will scratch their runes on wood, or daub them on their bodies with ochre, or whatever. The shapes and stylistic variations they introduce through the materials and methods they use are inevitably going to lead to varaitions in the appearance of the runes between cultures.
Having said that, the runes do genuinely represent fundamental magical principles that are universal in Glorantha. They are an example of objective magical and religious truth. The God Learners seem to have proved this.
Simon Hibbs
--__--__--
Powered by hypermail