So am I looking for old myths of how they failed to succeed by succeeding in survival? Not only do they fail in every myth but their mere existence is then a failure from their own point of view? From Primal Chaos point of view, that makes sense, but it doesn't ring true for me to look at the story of Thed and say that makes sense. Thed and Malia accepted the Compromise so they aren't Chaos Entities, they're simply associated with Chaos because they use it's power.
Is disease borne from Chaos? Well, only in the way that so is everything, the whole world of Glorantha sprang from Chaos. But now it's part of the compromise and has its place.
What makes more sense to me is that in the grand cosmology of things, the world is imperfect and is continually being remade and (hopefully) trending towards perfection. The whole Ouroborous imagery of rebirth seems to me to be a major theme. The way the world evolves towards perfection is apparent in each age. In the end of this age all the gods die and the world changes. Why should the old way go to the wayside and be replaced? Because it is found wanting. What was wanting in the old way? Well, from Theds perspective, the Storm Gods were injust, that's one thing.
So she wants to destroy the world and in so doing, is the catalyst for its transformation. THAT'S her place in the world.
But to HAVE that place requires a means, a dues ex machina if you will, of obtaining the power to do so. In all the myths of Glorantha, each culture has the requisites of attaining the results they want through their myths. The world WILL end,it says so right in the timeline. The fact that it gets reborn, well, that's part of the grander scheme of things. And that grander scheme, so far, has a place for Thed and Malia.
(That it won't have a place for them OR for Orlanth, Yelm, etc. in the next age is also a part of the story, but that's sidetracking this issue.)
By the same token, the heroes have their deux ex machina(s) such as the LIghtbringers Quest, etc. And all of these are based around heroquesting. But the heroes don't cause the end of the world. Being as it's heroquest based, however, the people who DO bring about its end must have HQ's of their own. It's how things work in this age. They aren't simply written up with the stats to acheive these things and there they are presto! It's inferred that they built themselves to that level of power and did so by being faithful to their cults. So the means must be there.
Anyways, some of the things I've found are stuff like the "Era of Healing" when epidemics were rampant in the Lunar Empire and weakened it prior to the incursion of Sheng Seleris. Bit much of a coincidence that, so that's an example of Malian(s) working towards a concerted goal. No doubt they could have reenacted a "Malia paves the way for Wakboth" heroquest complete with Malian germ warfare myths of how they spread disease amongst [name your cult] before Chaos struck. Now, if I can tie that in with other myths that discuss being set upon by plague I can start to construct a map of Malia's place in the God Plane. Then I can begin creating a set of HQ for the players to take to gain the powers necessary to acheive their ultimate goal of bringing about the end of the world.
Malia was born a spirit of healing, right? So that is remembered somewhere and if so, probably how she changed would have an associated myth around it. A storyline here could be built into how a character became a Malian. Anyone know the story behind that?
The whole healing thing could be played upon from the angle that if a Malian accepts a disease, they become immune to it (except the Plague IIRC) and thus if EVERYONE became Malians, there'd be almost no disease! CURED! Like smallpox vaccinations for everyone. Though I don't know how I'd use that in a campaign. Seems like the Nysalorians already tried that idea LOL.
Another thing I stumbled upon suggests Malia was Subhere's guardian at the gate and that is how Ragnaglar got access. Is that considered bunk or not? Doesn't seem likely that the guardian of such an important thing could be a spirit of healing. But maybe there's some symbology there I'm missing, or maybe both things I've read are bunk and she was neither.
Anyways, if anyone has any other stories about either Thed or Malia, I'd be interested in hearing them. Thanks.
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