On 12/7/2011 2:06 AM, David Cake wrote:
> "...Yelm was Illuinated. He experienced the impossible. Yelm experienced being one of the Many while he was nameless and faceless. He had no contact with the One. He at last knew the Other." - GROY
>
> What exactly this means, for a deity like Yelm to be Illuminated, is a matter of complicated and divisive debate to both Gloranthans and Glorantha fans. The Gloranthan debate is summarised in The Fortunate Succession. No one really knows for sure anything other than what is written above (and there are some who would doubt even that, based on the inherent biases of the source).
>
In particular, I've seen Greg write that Yelm has always been
Illuminated despite Gloranthan statements to the contrary in the
Fortunate Succession and the Glorious ReAscent while his most recent
utterance ("a crisis of vocabulary") seems to take the position that
Illumination is what occurs when Mortals try to understand Yelm.
In HQ2 terms, I would say that Yelmic Illumination requires a fire rune
and a particular level of dedication to the God Yelm (for example, the
Glorious ReAscent talks about Avivath untying the knot of Antirius) and
allows them to use Yelmic Feats (ie Sunspear) as opposed to the lesser
solar magic of Antirius and others. Whereas the Classic Illuminate
could ignore all cult rules and the like, the Yelmic Illuminate only had
to obey the laws of Yelm. Thus he could partake in Lodril's (decent)
rites and receive his magic but not be required to get pissed as a newt
once a week. The acceptance of chaos and the like of Classic
Illumination came about when others tried to broaden the state of
Illumination away from its Yelmic basis.
--Peter Metcalfe