Quoting Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>:
> It depends on when we are talking about. In the beginning, the
> God Learners were hard-line zealots (Abiding Book, Crusade
> against Arkat). But later, they degenerated.
Both true.
> As the prosopedia
First, thanks for including the references Peer. It makes it easier to follow the entire discussion.
> when being about the Arkati best puts it:
>
> Membership in his cult was at first discouraged, then outlawed,
> and eventually became superfluous amidst the growing abuses
> of the Jrusteli God-learners.
This is discussing the Arkat cult, and he was never worshipped by the God Learners or any Westerner. This would descibe what happened in Ralios, or even in the Heortling areas, but is not applicable to the God Learners.
> http://www.glorantha.com/library/prosopaedia/a.html
>
> In the last phase, I would place events such as their creation of the
> Temple of United Eurmal in Slontos, the Goddess Switch, and
> perhaps the creation of the Volcano Twins cult.
All of those were things done TO the hapless worshippers, not worship
done BY the GL.
The United Temple of Eurmal was akin to collecting a cage full of
monkeys to study.
The Goddess Switch was an attempt to discredit the deep nature of the deities.
The Volcano Twins seems to have been a lot of strange things, but
didn't include the GL worship of them by God Learners.
> The best statement
> of their attitude to other types of magic at this time is:
>
> Cleverly exploiting similarities and differences in all that
> they found, [...] they wove the four modes of magic into
> one etheric cloth of powers and energies which seemed
> to envelop the whole world.
> Cults Compendium p20 (from Cults of Terror).
This is true, but it doesn't mean that they worshipped with theistic or animist methodologies. They truely altered their religion, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by mistake, sometimes with the best intentions gone wrong. But their systems were built on top of each other, and it was all built on the One System that they knew worked: veneration and its associated sorcery.
I am NOT saying that there were not some of them who sacrificed or ecstaticized, for after a few centuries the depths of the perversion that some of the GL had reached was truely alien to their original beliefs. Venerating Orlanth, sacrificing to Malkion, being possessed by saints or making up rites to beings that they imagined were all done.
But these were exceptions, and were not promulgated widely by to try to convince significent populations to change their religion (though they may have foisted these off on their local populace.)
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