> On 3/6/2010 2:11 PM, Stephen Tempest wrote:
> > This is related to the mysticism discussion:
> >
> > Back in the days of 'Hero Wars' and 'Revealed Mythologies', we were
> > taught that the Middle World of Glorantha was formed by the collision
> > of four Otherworlds.
>
> I think you'll find that it was three otherworlds and four magical
> worldviews.
You are actually mistaken, but this is only because you are practically hindered from personally attending various convention discussions/rants about the cosmology...
Technically, the current "4" worlds model (Inner World + 3 Other Worlds + Borderlands Worlds) exists following the failure of the GL monomyth -- the God Learners were positing a theory of a single divided state of otherworldliness along with a model whereby the physical world was the result of the collision of the Five Elemental Worlds of Darkness, Water, Earth, Sky, and Storm -- plus Outer Chaos. They viewed the entities of the God World and those of the Spirit World as being damaged or otherwise flawed manifestations of the Ultimate Essence World, perhaps incorporating some matter from the 5 Elements or their derived Forms etc.
Third Age Gloranthan understandings of the "3" Other Worlds are as much manifestations of the disastrous failure of the GL philosophical model as of the actual magical dynamics.
The Chaos World could be and is sometimes considered to be a World ; some Gloranthans posit a Philosophical World whence metaphysics come from although you can never actually go there, because it is only a "World" in a non-demonstrable metaphysic manner ; there is a Dream World that the East Islanders know of and can and do visit ; the Five Primal Elemental Worlds of God Time and of GL monomythology do/did actually exist/"exist" ; etc
And who is to say that in the science-fiction themed 8th Age of Glorantha there aren't a potentially infinite number of parallel Gloranthas and infinite otherworlds of various different sizes and shapes and natures that your player characters will be able to visit by whichever appropriately campaign-themed methods and magicks and devices ?
Julian Lord
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