Esrolian "cultural hero"? (or equivalent)

From: Bryan <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 17:14:27 -0000

It seems that most main cultures in Glorantha have a cultural hero, the one showed them how to survive in the great darkness. For example, Heort for the Heortlings and Waha for the Praxians.

Of course, some places don't have such a being, but mostly those are now minor places, because so few survived the darkness that little of their old traditions survived, and they were few and weak at the dawn
(I think the region west of the Holy Country might actually be a
collection of several of this type of group, which is why is seems so without identity now).

We know that Esrolia was started during the Vingkotling age (probably near the end). (Esrolians probably share the more common name for that age, the lesser darkness). Presumably when the lightbringer missionaries arrived there after the dawn (and they wouldn't have taken that long to get there, I think), Esrolian customs were already strong enough that the lightbringers had little impact.

One candidate I suppose could be the Only Old One. Did she protect the whole holy country during the Darkness?

Another possibility is that they slept through the worst of the darkness, like the rest of the earth did, and were awoken at the dawn
(in which case there is no doubt a very significant "awakening day"
in their calendar of festivals, but their holy time rights may be rather different than those of any other culture).

Or was there a human hero, who taught them some way of surviving?

--Bryan