Excellent stuff by Simon (and Nick) clipped.
> The immediate questions this raises
> are where did this companion black moon come from, who worships
> it and why? All of which I think can have very entertaining
> questions.
Indeed!
I also like the idea that the palace of the goddess
> isn't permanently a place of radiant moonlight, but spends half
> it's time plunged into darkness.
This doesn't have to follow. (see below for more)
>
> > [1] Interestingly, ILH-1 describes Rufelza's gaze "sweeping
across
> Her
> > Empire" (p.15), which is hard to reconcile with a non-rotating
Red
> Moon
> > whose face always stares in the same direction.
>
> It also means that actualy the goddess, one of who's titles
> is 'The Turner' doesn't actualy turn.
Neither of these is necessarily true from the reference. Just because the moon is all red, with a black shadow cast upon by an orbitting body does NOT mean that the moon does not rotate! Sure it does, it is just that, since it is all red, it is not so easy to tell!
Actually, I don't suggest this just to keep old names. There is reference in one of the HW books (or other publications since then) that the dark side of the moon is a fearsome place that only the bravest questers seek out. This would suggest that at least some portion of the moon is always in shadow, and hence at least some portion must always be in light. This can only be the case, I'd say, if the moon itself is turning, while the invisible body orbits.
Of course, how to explain an invisible body that casts darkness? What if that was but a figure of speech, and it was more like a orbitting gateway, that sucked away the Red Moon's light (and energy) to some other place? Exactly what did she have to agree to, to get the bat? And who/what has been feeding on her energies all of these years, and what has it been storing them up for......(OK, one unsinister explanation is that this is the visible manifestation of her presence on the sorcery plane, and possibly the spirit and god plane too. Her body, in the moon, is in the physical world, but there is this link to all of the otherworlds. Hmmm, but it looks like one link, not three, and the otherworlds are all joined in the hell dimensions......)
Of course, this is no doubt getting way out of scope for this list, so I'll stop now.
>
> >IMG Gloranthans don't ask that kind of question, really.
> I think they do ask such questions, and are capable of developing
> quite sophisticated theories.
Probably the biggest difference is that we look for an answer driven by evidence, while most of them would look for an answer driven by faith. It is a bit like the occasional article discussing how the parting of the Red Sea could have been explained by this, that, or the other. For those of the appropriate faith, there is no explanation of the how required. Likewise, in Glorantha, when the provincial church teaches that there is cycles in all things, so the goddess must turn her gaze away sometimes, that is probably what most accept with no dispute, and probably how they remember what they experience during holy days. Initiates and especially devotees of one of the actual Lunar cults will probably have a more sophisticated view of things, but still it is probably an answer based on faith more than anything.
-Bryan
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