Castle Coast saints

From: Ian Cunningham <cappadocius_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:03:19 -0700


>>2) What are your thoughts on krjalki saints? I know it'd be completely
>>unthinkable in Rokari Seshnela, but the old-style Hrestoli on the
>>Castle Coast seem a lot like the type to never throw away a Saint. The
>>Christian legend of Saint Christopher Cynecephalos is serving as the
>>basis of a Troll Saint in my Glorantha - connections to Stygian
>>Heresies and Arkat will be made, of course.
>>
>There's unlikely to have been inhuman saints in the castle coast
>in the first place. The nearest is worship of the Serpent Kings
>(who had reptilian appendages for limbs). Alternatively the
>Castle Coasters could worship one of the reptilian brethren
>of the serpent kings but that would be very very unusual.

I often forget that modern Malkionism isn't an evangelical religion, like Christianity or Islam, but is more of a racially-associated religion, like Judaism or Hinduism. An inhuman saint would make sense in a religion looking to convert their neighbors - it would seem inevitable that the first "monstrous" convert would end up spoken of like a saint, if only to aid in further conversions. And saying, "The Invisible God is so cool Its prophets were able to convert even krjalki beasts!" has to have some impact when you're trying to convince "mere" human neighbors to follow your way. But this is a moot point, giving Western insularity.

Now, the God Learner Empire, on the other hand, seems to be very clearly evangelical, and am I mistaken in assuming that they started, at least, from Malkioni first principles before embarking on their grand experiments? A God-Learner Heroquest taking some Uz legend of "How the trolls made a truce with the filthy hoo-mans" and turning it into "How some trolls converted to the One True Religion" seems possible, if not probable. If there were Uz, or Mostali, or Aldryami saints lurking out there in the hinterlands, they would come from this sort of mythic monkeyshine sticking around after the fall of the Empire.

And, of course, another possible source would be Stygian Liturgists wandering down from Safelster and slipping in stories of Arkat (with names changed to protect the innocent, of course) in their sermons. This would make matters more clearly heretical, of course.

Your point about Serpent Kings lurking about in the histories is well-taken, and I'll have to think about the number of saints with scaly arms that may be out there.


Powered by hypermail