> The notion that said myths--with their multitude themes,
> participants and outcomes--can be resolved into this overly
> simplistic, reductive framework depresses me.
I have mixed feelings. The elemental progression was one of the cool, easily understood things that originally attracticed me to Glorantha.
Where I want to deviate from it, I usually use different elements. The notion that fire and sky are the same thing, for example, seems pretty odd, especially if you live in northern climes. The sun is a bright thing, but not particularly fiery. It doesn't burn up, for example, and no one ever feeds it. So, fire and sky are obviously different things for some people (who hopefully never come to-to-toe with a Dara Happan rune lord on a quest).
Similarly air and storm might be different. Storm obviously disrupts the air. That's why you can feel the air fleeing away from storms before they arrive. Darkness and cold are different; I don't emit light, but I'm quite warm.
That gives me enough elements to play with that I can justify any elemental relationships I might want. It works well for the Three Feathered Rivals for example, where Thunderbird (as air) ought not to dominate Sun Hawk (as fire/sky). But if storm is not air, and sun is not fire, maybe we get a different answer.
Chris
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