> Nothing official has been published [about Invisible
> Orlanth].
True, but I *do* like Peter's "unofficial" account and would use it myself (along with his other Carmanian innovations).
When we were planning to include Saranko in "Life of Moonson," I was writing him up to appear more as a Crowley-type sorcerous charlatan than (say) a woad-painted Storm Voice or barbarian rebel hero. In that version, he'd have been an out-and-out con man, setting up his quasi-Masonic brotherhood to leech off the gullible upper-class fops of Carmania. But -- as you doubtless know -- several bits of "Life of Moonson" were written for laughs; cf. Quinscion the Patient (irascible hypochondriac): having the only "Orlanthi" character be an evil sorcerer would have fitted this mould. And besides, Saranko didn't make it into the final cut.
> Both Saranko and the Hierophant share the same mother,
> Yolanela, who is intent on causing trouble in Carmania
> to restore her own brand of Dark Witchery to power.
> To cause division among the Magi, she has been invading
> the dreams of the hierophant and reduced him to a mere
> pawn through extremely vivid dreams. Hence the Hierophant
> will not move against his half-brother.
An excellent explanation. I don't have any trouble with this.
> This is IMO. Nick has a different interpretation about
> Yolanela's hijinks up on his webpage.
Freeform characters are necessarily "sketchy," and freeform plots necessarily "compressed," compared with what would make sense in a detailed campaign. Peter's explanation of these events will doubtless prove more useful than ours for a prolonged Gloranthan RPG campaign set in Carmania. "Life of Moonson" is like a novelisation of a cartoon of an abridged remake of the real events. Though the extra stuff it includes and alludes to (e.g. the Dark Emperor, Yolanela's orphanages, the Alehandro incest sub-plot, Char-Un raids into Spol, etc.) could certainly add fun colour to a Carmanian campaign, *alongside* Peter's material.
I am not aware of any inconsistencies or un-"interpretable" differences between Peter's and my published accounts of what Yolanela is getting up to in Carmania. I do know Peter once wrote a strangely different account of what's going on between Yolanela and Moonson, but no shadows of that made it through to the published Glorantha Book. For now, I'd still stand by "Yolanela Spurned" and "The Son of Light Awakens" as the best published accounts of why Yolanela isn't allowed anywhere near Moonson.
More on this at www.etyries.com/Moonie/Moonson/yolanela.htm, plus various other bits and bobs on my website, and the "Yolanelathon" stories at: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mrmob/gloranthafiction.htm (also published in one of the Convulsion programme books).
Cheers, Nick
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