I'm especially happy to see they aren't afraid to go for the big themes (very different from RQ) and there is less of the running-on-rails feeling than the Hero Wars / Hero Quest stuff from Issaries had.
Another big thing is not getting lost in the trivia. Instead of going on about 50 minor cults of the Lunar Empire the Lunars are now what they should always have been... the bad guys.
Don't get me wrong. It's not black and white, but they definitely have some Melnibonian glory to them in this edition of Glorantha. It is clearly stated how Chaos is always just a bad decision away from a lunar cultist, and how the Bat isn't the only use of outright chaos that they do.
I really like this. The lunars are a proper aggressive empire. Their religion and mindset tells them that Chaos is just a tool, sort of like we could think about chemistry and nuclear power. Sure, it can be dangerous when misused, but it helps bring prosperity and power at the cost of a manageable risk.
My reading of the Lunar religion form the Pavis book especially is that Sedenya is a beautiful mask, behind which rolls enthropy and chaos. Or maybe like a high wire artist. As long as she keeps her balance, it doesn't matter how high the drop is. BUT in the Lunar philosophy _every_ god is like that. The difference is that the lunars understand it. Glorantha itself has always been described in the setting material as "a bubble in an infinite sea of chaos". Of course only a sevened lunar truly understands this, and it can also explain why illumination can so easily drive you stark raving mad instead.
All in all, a lot of fun and some truly excellent books :)
-Adept
PS. Has much of the discussion moved to the Moon Design forums?
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