I don't see it as particularly advanced.
> I read, somewhere, a quote to the effect that a wide spread,
> consistent religion could be taken as evidence of GL interference or
> an inquisition style maintenance of religious orthodoxy.
You will read many strange theories. :)
> Well, the
> second option doesn't fit with Orlanthi culture, so I'm wondering how
> that culture could be so wide spread, while at the same time being so
> vehemently individualistic.
The religion expanded in the Dawn Age because they had a truly liberating spiritual insight that made peoples' lives easier to live. In those days the population of the Heortlings was a few thousand, and most of the people they encountered were a few hundred, at most. Many were just a dozen or so in a family group.
The unification of the Orlanthi and the Solar religions, under the council that created Nysalor, was a fusion of two different religions under a mystically oriented demigod. A truly unique event for the times. And one that did not last under its own internal pressure.
The Harmast saga I'm working on will show this, in novel form (see Friends of Glorantha to be part of that.)
> My question is, could the current form of Orlanthi culture be an
> effect of GL interference? Could the GLs have re-written the basic
> mythology of Orlanth as some sort of weapon against the EWF, to change
> the culture, so those resistant to EWF mysticism would be even more
> rebellious?
Big YGWV warning here, but yes, sure that could have happened.
In fact, it was the EWF itself did monstrous things to change the Orlanthi religion in Dragon Pass. The Traditionalists became more rigid in their defense of the Old Ways, and the Ralios Traditionalists came with their preserved religion (plus changes !!) to reassert the "original ways."
The Orlanthi Mythology book that Jeff and I've been doing will have some material about these draconic interpretations.
> 2) where does Gorgorma come from?
Gorgorma is the shadow of pure and perfect Dendara. Each of them is half of the total of the Celestial Feminine.
> Could Gorgorma, in fact, be Thed? We know that myths can be
> contradictory and the pre-dawn (hence, pre-time) was not bound by
> causality. Could Thed (non-redeemed) have continued as mother of Broos
> and associated nastiness, while the redeemed Thed took a new
> path/name/identity, hence Gorgorma?
Could be, but in a YGWV version, not mine.
--
Sincerely,
Greg Stafford
Issaries, Inc.
1942 Channing Way, #204
Berkeley, CA 94704
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