Me:
>> Because they were the successful response to the Pendali military
>> emergency said to threaten the Seshnegi with annihilation. That the
>> lion hsunchen kingdoms were a powerful foe is clear. For example,
>> they wipe out a Brithini expeditionary force sent to assist Neleoswal
>> (and the Brithini are known to be skilled in combat).
Peter:
>I don't think the Dawn Aged Seshnegi were Brithini before Hrestol's
>revelation. They were Malkioni who believed in Solace after death and
>who had ordinary lifespans. The immortality of the Brithini comes from
>the Revelations of Now which Malkioni ultimately repudiated and the
>Seshnegi are the true followers of Malkion unlike the Godless Brithini.
I didn't mean to imply I thought the Seshnegi were Brithini. One of Greg's early stories has Brithini from Brithos landing in Seshnela and attempting to assist Neleoswal. If this is because of my "an ancient, immortality-giving ordering of society" comment, I was merely noting that it was magically potent, probably in more ways than the well-known immortality.
Peter:
>Secondly at the time of the wars there were only a few thousand or so
>people in all of Seshnela. With such a small population, a bad
>encounter could easily spell military disaster without having to posit
>superhuman powers to the Pendali.
The strength of the Pendali is of course up for debate, in part depending on how one interprets old sources and updates them for our current understanding of Glorantha. I've read the previous debates on the Pendali and the usefulness of what's called the Book of Kings and I'm not looking to reignite those sometimes heated exchanges.
The broad stroke of events is that a Seshnegi nobleman offends the Pendali, triggering wars that threaten to crush the Malkioni settlements. In response Hrestol quests, establishes knighthood, and has a transcendental experience which turns him into a prophet and somehow changes the Western otherworld. A big response, to something that must have been a big threat. All because of a few hundred primitive lion men at the gates? Perhaps that's all that's going on here, but I do see the Pendali as having access to superhuman powers and/or allies.
Beyond this, the Seshnegi faced more threats than just the Pendali. The age of the Serpent Kings was the age of the taming of (the land of) Seshnela. It's a big place and had its share of chaos pockets, malevolent creatures, and hostile demigods (even gods) to be dealt with. This was the task of the knight-errant, and questing (usually individually) against these threats was a requirement of the caste. The Book of Kings gives some examples, and these foes were not easy.
Peter:
>> "As for Joy, Greg's put out numerous confusing signals in the
>> glorantha: intro and elsewhere. As far as I can make out, Hrestol
>> called down Joy from God that transformed portions of the Ideal
>> Plane into being able to project magic onto the Mundane plane without
>> the need to contact it. So instead of the Ideal Plane magics being
>> only accessible through following the Ideals, Saints can project
>> blessing and curses down to the ordinary Malkioni and their
>> enemies."
>I'll have to repudiate my thinking above and say that instead that
>Saints could project blessings and curses onto the Malkioni since the
>Ice Age. Hrestol's joy is something else.
Now this is a pity to read. What do people make of these words from Arcane Lore: "The resonance of God as Man created a new approach to sorcery, or applied magic, starting at this time. After [Joy], the Otherworld has the increasingly defined Saint Plane with which people act."
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