Re: Caselein ...Issaries goes west in reverse?

From: Nicholas P <nick.the.nevermet_at_-Mgy03VdXx_gmo5Ta5GQ1HyvtyLW_4XYXtdWfiLXf_WwfHapDZ4VxTYPXp>
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:47:46 -0000

> Trade is very, very much a matter of communication and cultural
> exchange as any archaeologist or classicist studying Old World
> Systems will tell you. Possibly at *excruciating* length.

I'm now imagining how a world systems analysis of Glorantha would work, and I probably will be for a few days. Ya big jerk. ;-P

Also, I suspect a Trader Prince Wizard has already done it.

> No, I think there is something did happen in the Godtime and it is
> viewed from various angles. I think it happened in what would
> become the Middle World and hence is accessible or attributable to
> a variety of causes. Misapplied worship does not quite fit. I'm
> happy to have several different viewpoints (divine, sorcerous,
> spiritual) viewpoints on the same event. I suspect the Dawn is not
> the only time that disparate groups and magic systems have worked
> together for the same event - the Shiprise being a modern case in
> point.

I agree that we're dealing with a monotheistic/sorcerous account of an event. The Middle Sea Empire says that Church of Ashara is a Recovery Church, one of many churches trying to identify The Latest Action and recover Malkionism from Godlearner excesses. According to tMSE the "cosmology and mythology of these Recovery Churches is exactly the same as the Abiding Book up to the moment of it's actual creation" (p. 36-37). That means that Ashara is in the Abiding Book. Even if Ashara is Issaries, it's still a depiction of him & his actions from within Malkionism.

IMG,this means that someone (Caselein or someone else?) wrote the foundational text of a Recovery Church by focusing on the lessons offered by a character described in The Abiding Book. Put all this together, and you (well... I) get a Church that has been explicitly founded as a rejection of Godlearnerism, and grounding itself on a theology of motion, exchange, and communication. In short, the Church of Ashara is Gloranthan discourse ethics: the good is an emergent property created through agreement and consent, and The Invisible God wishes this because through cooperation we are refined and redeemed. The Church of Ashara would therefore see the core sin of the Godlearners is arrogance.

Also, from what I gather from BoG, Caselein's trip to the east was not an intentional attempt on his part to be Ashara going in the opposite direction. The Closing created problems for Caselein's people by cutting off their supply of Falangian daimonds (whatever they are) which they had to given as tribute to the Iron Stag (whoever that is/was). The Great Trek was Caselein using magic from Ashara to create an overland route to get the needed daimonds.

Nick            

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