Apologies for the slight rant. It's been something I've felt for a while and this thread, if not entirely apposite, seemed to be an outlet. Only one rant left, now.
If Joerg doesn't mind, I'll just comment on his first point, for now (though I found his others good reading).
> I may be even weirder than some of the other regulars here,
> but I like to use "this is how it works in our world" and
> transpose it to Glorantha...
> When I learn that obsidian and basalt (both minerals associated
> with volcanoes) don't usually coexist, I'm inclined to find what
> different forces there are in Lodril's (or choose your local name)
> realm. Is it a measure of activity of the volcano god whether he
> producess silicate-rich rock (obsidian) or silicate-poor? Is it a
> question of diet, worship, defeats, weddings, interaction with
> other elemental forces? This kind of stuff leads me to "there ought
> to be a myth about ..."
I entirely understand, Joerg; I probably just stop one or two steps before you do.
To push the above example further (as it seems to be useful, and one we're both familiar with) I'd tend to focus on phenomena, rather than products. By that, I mean I'd consider the broad trends in volcanic activity and what they could mean. As to the symptoms of these phenomena, well, that depends...
For example: if I was describing the various minor volcano gods of Caladraland, it is easy to associate violently explosive volcanism with a mardy, bad-tempered deity; and more quiescent, gently effusive volcanism with a more pacific or fecund entity.
These are minor, but amusing character (or caricature) actors; less broad in their power and with a more singly defining nature--a little like a lesser god with one rune, for example.
Veskarthan, however, I would allow every form of volcanic activity possible. He is greatest volcano in Glorantha, one of the three Dragon Mountains (yes, that's a meaningless and somewhat irrelevant point, but it sounds good) and the father of volcanism. I would not proscribe any phenomena, rather tie them to him according to mood, anger, benefice and curse.
From very fast, inviscid komatiite flows, through fields of pahoehoe and creeping snakes of blocky andesite, to pyroclastic flows stormy rains of ash and pumice.
Would I use these specific lavas as examples? I doubt many would know what I was on about. If pushed by someone who had an inkling of geology, I might; otherwise I'd be just as happy to make a description, perhaps one that had little basis in reality. Veskarthan's lava may just as well contain the crushed, boiled bones of a Chaos army, charred bark of ancient forests or blue, crystalline blood of a Sea god as any mineral I could come up with.
Beyond that, I tend to leave the science at home. In Glorantha I'd happily give a gently effusive basaltic shield [sic] a far steeper slope than a composite cone, if that volcano was more virile and powerful. I'd happily mix "heavy, black volcanic rock" (basalt) with "obsidian" (and, yes, for simplicity I'd use 'obsidian' as a reference to any volcanic glass, not simply that of rhylotic composition). I could deposit volcanic glass at the core of a lava flow as easily as its edges (if I had a poetic enough reason).
In sum, I'd take the range of volcanic phenomena and products our own world produces, and use them to spur and guide my imagination as best I could, as colours on a palette. But I would not feel particularly constrained by Earthly process and science in the manner in which I applied them.
Stew.
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