>Time gives us the ruler. It also systematically orders cause to occur
>before effect. I suppose it could have been the other way around. It's
>what physicists call the arrow of time in the real world, where it is
>defined as increasing entropy.
>
>>From a HeroQuester's perspective, you can go to events in the HeroPlane
>in lots of different orders. Some of those orders are hard for people
>with a sense of time to come to grips with. It can appear that you are
>going back in time if you assume that cause has to precede effect.
>
>One of my favorite possibilities is to have two spots on the HeroPlane
>that cannot be solved for by someone using time to order cause and
>effect. In myth A, a stranger comes to the mountain spirit's home and
>takes the snow blanket; the mountain spirit goes to the stranger's
>home, beats him up and takes the snow blanket home; that's why mountain
>tops are snow-covered. In myth B, a thug beats up the ice princess and
>takes her snow blanket; she goes up to the thug's mountain hideout and
>steals back her snow blanket; that's why it snow sometimes covers the
>land. These are two sides of the same myth. Each one is self-consistent
>in causality, but it defies being ordered in time because cause need
>not precede effect. It's a brain twister for those of us used to the
>presence of time.
>
>Now, you're thinking that my example is strained, right? Think about
>the Hill of Gold and all the stories about Death being stolen and
>traded and whatnot. I think it explains a lot.
>
>I think this is only true In My Glorantha. But it's MGF to me.
It makes sense to me. Although I wonder if the heroplane is even more complex because in addition to myth A and myth B there's myth C where the ice princess rescues a trader from the cold and he promises to recover her snow blanket. Which he does by trading a pretty but worthless stone to the stranger. And so on through the alphabet. Each myth being different but some being stronger than others because they are re-enacted more frequently, or by stronger heroquesters.
Ultimately the Hero Wars are going to destroy some of these myths because the people who know them will disappear from Glorantha. That's assuming the myth does fade from the heroplane if it is not re-enacted or perhaps it just remains to be discovered by someone falling into it accidently?
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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