In complete MGDV fashion, in my Glorantha Arachne Solara grabbed all the pieces of the world that she could, applied the equivalent of cosmological crazy glue, and built a world. She did not by any means, however, get her web on all of the pieces of the world that had been, and she most likely missed some that still existed but were just too challenging to grab.
(A quick aside for why I view things this way:
- What is devoured by chaos is generally viewed to be lost forever, and chaos devoured everything
Some of the `missing' fragments are probably in some hell or another—places/beings that died in the darkness, damaged to the degree that no god would take up the cosmic net (or equivalent in other cultures), but which were not totally destroyed by chaos. Such fragments have, essentially, stayed in the Great Darkness all this time. For me, one such fragment was the Kingdom of War.
It seems that the Hero Wars, in their ever escalating nature, would eventually lead someone to succeed in re-integrating another such fragment (most likely the Lunar Empire in its `monster empire' phase, but that is far from guaranteed—after all, per Master of Luck and Death, some researchers think there must be another element, which would leave The Holy Country short a section, for instance…). I'm thinking of having a story arc to prevent the first such attempt of the hero wars. Later someone may succeed, probably learning from this first, failed, effort. PC involvement will of course be key in making it fail.
The plot comes to light gradually, it becomes apparent that the results would be fairly horrific, instigators much be fought but the chief movers behind it escape, and (via improvised heroquest) must be chased to the world fragment down In hell, and defeated for good.
Where I'm falling short is thinking of a world fragment that is interesting, evocative, and awful (it may have been lovely originally, but after this long in hell its vices have turned to virtues). I want something that is fairly easy to describe, and that is either immediately recognizable as a `horrible thing that must be stopped' or else which seems like something you'd almost want, except that it would be destructive for that and those you love.
The one idea I'd had was descendants of Vingkot who have survived this long, long, darkness via cannibalism upon a minor god (who can't die per se, and regenerates enough to just keep the increasingly depraved stead alive—the god was so captured and half-alive that it never took hold of Arachne Solara's net). The cannibals would perhaps be near demi-gods in their own right, and of the true line of Vingkot, so it could be a Heortling looking to bring them back as true high kings.
I could run with this, but....I feel that something better could be thought of.
If you've managed to read this far, I'd welcome suggestions! Can you think of sufficiently horrific and or enticing/horrific world fragment that could truly motivate players?
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