When looking at Glorantha you can't really apply RW answers to what is going on. After all, there are quite a few very important paradigm shifts in how we viewed the universe between then and now. This is especially true in that Glorantha often explicitly reflects the views of those within it, and can be manipulated by manipulating those belief structures (after all, what else is magic).*
The ideas of fields and forces are incomprehensible to the Gloranthan mindset (unless referring to what you grow crops in or the Lunar troops invading your homeland). So the very idea of gravity is unthinkable.
Instead objects fall because they have an innate characteristic: their weight. Heavier objects fall faster than light objects. Everybody knows that. It's "obvious." But it goes further than this. Things fall to the ground. Therefore this weight property must be associated with the Earth aspect of their make up. Birds on the other hand can fly, probably because of their association with the Solar pantheon. They are drawn to the sky. Since it is obvious that a feather falls slower than a rock, it is probably a property of the feather. We could test this by plucking a bird and throwing it off a cliff. Further observation notes that certain feathers are more important than others. Clipping these means that the birds have difficulty flying. Obviously these feathers have a greater Fire aspect than the other feathers. Etc.
A whole coherent natural philosophy can be constructed from theology. With an obvious but mistaken premise it is possible to build a coherent structure that explains the universe.
One of my favourite Gloranthan things is that Dark is an element. It has an actual existence in Gloranthan philosophy. It is not simply the absence of light. By this premise things get harder to see because the absence of Fire (the Sun) allows the Dark to emerge once more from the Underworld. Things get harder to see because more and more Dark (which is an element that hides vision) gets between you and what you are trying to see. When the Sun returns, the Dark flees back into caves and the Underworld. Therefore we can assume that light doesn't allow you to see, but rather is a property of Fire that drives away the Dark.
Ian
Powered by hypermail