Here's a secret: I bet no one knew when they wrote is OiD what the details of the bigger ritual were. How could they do that, I hear you cry. Easy because they wanted to tell a good story.
I suspect that the point of OiD to the author was to trying to create a story in which people's faith and adherence to their gods is put to the test. Do you keep faith in Orlanth and Ernalda when the going gets tough? That is a pretty recurrent Gloranthan theme. Every age the Orlanthi seem to be tested, pushed to the limit, almost wiped out. So far, a spark amidst the darkness has kept the faith and re-kindled the torch. I fought, We Won. It's their secret. That's what the Great Winter is about: I fought, We Won.
Now some people want a well-defined and coherent Gloranthan metaphysical machine and they want to be able to see how somebody lent upon the wheels and the gears to move the machine so that this could happen. Well if they need it fine. But for me one of the great liberations of the HeroQuest era has always been the notion of 'story first', 'you don't need to know all the details'. It lets folks tell the stories they want without being chained and shackled by the canonistas who pervade this list and others.
We know these kind of things can happen in Glorantha and its enough to know that powerful rituals can cause massive magical effects. I don't know how Zzabur pulled of the Closing, I have not examined the metaphycial fallout of how the Closing was brought into being by Prince Snodal, I don't know how Lokamayadon interrupted Orlanthi rituals. I do know that such stories have the character of Glorantha to them. I do know that Orlanth is Dead is such a story.
If you need to know how the gears work for your story, then make it up. Because then your story will tell you what the myth needs to be, because it will be the myth your story needs to work.
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