From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idgecko.idsoftware.com)
Date: Tue 16 Jan 1996 - 18:17:07 EET
David Dunham
>In most ways, Glorantha represents a steady decline.
This is pretty clear. On Earth, too, the attitudes of many
cultures towards the march of history is not the same as the modern
Western tendency to buy into eternal progress (I once had an
argument with a man who claimed that modern education, science, and
philosophy was the reason that we didn't still have terrible
slaughters and cruelties like in the olden times. I started to talk
about Pol Pot, the holocaust, Operation Phoenix, and he literally
ran away.)
Anyway, here are some of my random thoughts on the Empires
of old and new.
PERCEPTION OF HISTORY BY VARIOUS GLORANTHAN CULTURES ***
LUNARS -- see it as cyclical, but the cycle appears to have an end.
ORLANTHI -- see it as a steady decline. In the old times men were
stronger, women more fertile, gods walked among men. Nowadays things
are worse. Nonetheless, the Orlanthi seem to be basically an
optimistic folk. Evidently they take pride in the might of their
ancestors, rather than bemoaning their modern degenerate state. They
are very reactionary and hostile to change, because any change
would naturally be bad. However, changes to Old Ways are acceptable,
which would explain why the barbarians seem to spawn true
civilizations from time to time -- like the Kingdom of Sartar. Of
course, now that there has been such a Kingdom, all the Orlanthi
yearn for its return ("Back to the Old Ways!" they shout, forgetting
that the old ways were once new.)
DORADDI -- see it as episodic. Normally there is the savannah, the
tribes, the Ancestors, the oases, the family, and the mother-in-law.
Everything is fine as it can be. But sometimes Bad Things come and
try to change everything, like the Artmali, the Six-Leggers, the
Jungle, the Kresh, etc. Then we have to stop it, or all our world
will be at risk. The negative-thinkers among the Doraddi surmise
that someday one of these Bad Things will actually succeed in
overwhelming the the world, and then the good old ways will be lost
forever. No doubt that is what happened in Genertela, land of
horror.
EAST ISLES -- all the world is a dream. There is no time, no
sequentiality. (East Islanders are notorious for arriving late for
scheduled events, and their calendar is one of the most slipshod in
Glorantha.) All is an illusion. Things seem to progress, or to
deteriorate, but they're really just changing, not getting worse or
better. The only things that can _really_ happen are for the dream
to turn into a nightmare, or into the full waking state. If either
occurs, the dream will end forever.
KRALORELA -- the world is eternal and unchanging, though cyclic as
well. However, we as individuals are capable of progression and
perfection. If we hold together as a nation, then our individual
progressions can gradually improve the entirety of the empire. But
the fact that I am master of all crafts and own true enlightenment
does not void the fact that my son must start from scratch to
achieve the same.
Peter Metcalfe:
>The Gift Carriers only wiped out the Umathelan God Learners (who
>were the only ones to know the Forbidden Secret), I believe.
The Gift Carriers wiped out God Learners from Loskalm to
Umathela, from Teleos to Jrustela. The Forbidden Secret was sprinked
throughout the Middle Seas Empire. Just for your information. The
Umathelans were the first to recognize them for what they were. To
the rest, they seemed just otherworld random violence.
Sandy
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