Re: Digest Number 226

From: RoySubs_at_...
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 16:59:44 -0000


>>>>> One thing I find very interesting in mythology is that legends
and stories change over time and distance. For example, in one version of the death of Baldur, mistletoe is a plant; in another, it's a sword (IIRC). Why should a myth on Glorantha be consistent from one place to another?

One point on this; on Earth, the myths relate to gods and things that, and I may be out on a limb here, did not really happen. In Glorantha, they DID and are REAL. You can jump into the Godswar and see them happening (so, really *myths* are not *stories* as they are on Earth, they are reality and to a large extent should be consistent). You can change the events to some degree by screwing with them, but if Orlanth has a feat revolving around such and such, then unless it's changed on a hero quest then it will have more-or- less the same wherever you worship Orlanth, because you are worshipping something real that gives out powers as dictated by the Great Compromise. So these should be describable in general. They should also be improvisable in the same way that Orlanth could use his powers in weird ways, but they should have some DETAIL and STRUCTURE because the events preceding the Compromise were for the most part set in stone. So, a power (feat) should be basically describable without a million and one interpretations although be flexible to the puny ways that mortals use the great powers of their god. Also, a myth should sorta be testable (by Divination and walking among the Gods on a HeroQuest), but that doesn't mean you check it all the time and some people could over decades or centuries of not getting the point or whatever, take things for granted in a slightly odd way and have some differing myths (Yelmalio and Elmal with Monrogh being an example etc.).

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