From: Sandy Petersen (sandyp@idgecko.idsoftware.com)
Date: Mon 19 Aug 1996 - 21:24:43 EEST
Michael Raaterova
>There are pretty few universal [myth-]phenomena, but Sacred Time and
>IFWW are both universal, which, frex, the LBQ is not. Sure, Yelm got
>resurrected all over the lozenge, but not everyone agrees on how he
>pulled that trick.
Greg is now thinking that I Fought We Won might have only
been in the Dragon Pass area. I think he's wrong, and that it is
universal, or at least _was_. It is possible that it has been
forgotten in some lands.
The LBQ is, of course, not universal at all, but is
restricted to the Storm Pantheon. However, many other pantheons have
quests which reflect _other_ parts of that same adventure. For
instance, a Yelm worshiper, if killed, go to Hell, and force the
murderer to come to him to seek forgiveness and then return with him
to life. This isn't the LBQ, but it is obviously connected to it.
Note that the LBQ itself doesn't cover the whole adventure --
very little takes place for the Lightbringer team during the meeting
in Hell, the victory over Chaos, the Compromise, and the return to
Dawn, over half the quest!
To complete the entire story of this crucial moment in
Gloranthan time, you probably need every single religion in Glorantha
participating. For instance, Storm Bull must slay the Devil at just
the right time, so the Devil's soul gets to Hell to encounter Arachne
Solara. Leave this out, and the Compromise can't be completed.
Now, while Michael mentions that "Yelm was resurrected all
over the lozenge", even this is not so. Everyone whose mythology goes
back far enough to remember the sun's death agrees that the sun
vanished for a while, then rose again. But not everyone agrees that
this was a death-and-resurrection. Some groups believe that the
original sun was killed, and that a new sun is now in the sky.
The East Islanders believe that the old Sun is in the
Dreamworld, and that every night, he fathers a new Sun. The new Sun
then rises and falls in the course of a day, and then remains with
the father. Thus, every day is literally a new day for them, and
sometimes their prophets predict a particularly good or ill Sun will
be rising on some particular day. Thus, there were bad omens just
before the Sunstop, and it was clear that something was Wrong with
the upcoming sun.
Sandy P.
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