Re: Are Runes Foundational?

From: hcarteau_at_Cdpyhbo-WzGmNUwopopS4HvbxkXfaRkCkXInapm8aiEyJLvaz-M8aN3xMOM9usAtGLP
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 21:43:06 +0100 (CET)

While I agree with Benedict, that a Gloranthan perspective is important, I also feel that a real world perspective is also important. Sometimes it's difficult to think about things from a Gloranthan perspective, I for one am not a Gloranthan. I live in a different world to them with different values and don't generally have to worry about huge monstrous bats and dragons.
/// Yes you do. They have names like JP morgan and goldman sachs. They're powerful and totally occluded, not even caring about their own country.

I see the runes as absolutely fundamental to Glorantha. They are its atoms, everything is made of runes and everything is worked by their power. Matter and energy are runes and can change from one to the other. Different mixtures of runes make the different things in the world. There's no real world chemistry or physics here, the runes just work like that (snip).
/// You take is very malkioni ! The godlearners called these Runes, modern day malkioni call them Laws.

At the core of the runes is the idea that they devolved from a single greater source and that they continued to devolve, separating themselves into the Gloranthan runes we know today. These subsequently mixed and made new things, Gods, Powers and Spirits, and they mixed smaller and smaller parts of runes together eventually making everything in the world. The stories of the separation and mixing of the parts are the myths of Glorantha. If you repeat the stories in a similar way, you can control the runes.
/// Again, a very western outlook. You must be a zzaburi.

In Gloranthan everyone knows they are made of runes as is everything else, what else are they made of! Everyone has heard their creation myth. But just as on Earth people won't speak in those terms. We say pass the salt not pass the sodium chloride, Gloranthans will be the same.
/// I love this analogy ! Sodium chloride is what the godlearners said. Of course, they understood the cosmos better than any other culture before or since. In fact, I suspect the words you quote are quoted straight from "The Unencumbered Light of Reason", a major grimoire of the New Order. Separate the truly Logical Informations from ritual chaff and you get this book.

Different cultures have different ideas as to how many parts their soul is made of and different ideas on their connections to the runes. We have the Orlanthi ideas in the Book of Heortling Mythology (5), the Dara Happans in the Glorious ReAscent of Yelm (6), The Lunars in the upcoming Pavis book (7) and I suspect the West will be similar to Greek philosophical ideas (3) and I've no idea about Kralorelans.
/// People are made of Matter and Energy. Energy is your Sacred Essence. It is a tiny speck of Reason and it is the only Conscience you will ever get. It was made one and indivisible by the Laws. We don't care how many parts the pagans and heathens think their so-called soul is made of : they have no Essence and will never reunite with Solace.
           

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