What Argrath Really Did

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From: rhwolfe1@ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed 06 Aug 1997 - 07:30:53 EEST

I was checking out Nick's Gloranthan page recently, and I skimmed one
of his articles theorizing about what Argrath really did when he
"killed" the Red Moon. I know Nick's mentioned this on the digest,
but I'll summerize. Basically he proposes that Argrath, as an
unwitting tool of the dragonnewts (and the Red Moon herself), enacted
a ritual that simply moved the Moon along to its next stage, that being
the "White Orbiter" mentioned in King of Sartar. He concluded his
theory with a retorical question, something along the lines of,
"Hey, Orlanthi, feel used?"

I felt as a Sartari patriot and the first High King of Dragon Pass
(Maniski Firebreath, r. 1336-1342, last words "it seemed like a
good idea at the time"), I owe Nick's question a response, to
whit:

Heck, no.

Even assuming Nick's theory is true, all it shows is that Argrath
finally realized an important truth. He figured out who the enemy
was. Argrath thought all along his goal was to bring down the
Red Moon and destroy her cult. But he eventually realized that
his real enemy wasn't the Moon, it was Moonson. Not the Lunars, but
the Lunar Empire. And White Orbiter or not, he did a great job
wrecking the Empire (hell, he wrecked four or five of them). Argrath
may not have achieved his philosophical goals, but he achieved his
political ones, freedom for the Quivini from the Oppressive Solar
Empire From the North (Version 3.3 - 3.9). I doubt there's a
red-blooded Orlanthi alive who wouldn't agree that that was a Good Thing.

Two other points worth mentioning:

1. I doubt Shepelkirt was a willing participant in her
"transformation" into the White Orbiter any more than
Yelm was a willing participant in his various transformations.
In setting herself up as a Yelm replacement, the RG unwittingly
took on Yelm's mythic role, which is basically to be a glorified
shuttlecock. Yelm (and the moon) are doomed forever to be
the Acted Upon instead of the Actors. Get stabbed, cha-cha-cha,
go to hell, cha-cha-cha, get torn up, be rescued, agree to a
less powerful role in the universe, be resurrected, cha-cha-cha.
All that nonsense about Yelm "attracting Orlantus with his justice"
in GRoY strikes me as an enormous justification. Yelm got shoved
around mythically, and there's no reason to think Shepelkirt
didn't suffer the same fate. (Hell, same thing happened to
little Teelo Nori, right?)

2. It just goes to prove that Orlanthi heroquests almost never
turn out quite the way they're planned.

Think about it. Orlanth sets out to Heal the Universe and ends
up resurrecting his own worst enemy. Do you really think that
was his goal all along? (see enormous justifications above).
He probably went to hell to get Genert or Glorantha or somebody,
and Yelm was the best he could do. Was Harmast looking for Arkat?
I doubt it. He was just looking for a way to off Lokywhatsisface.
Which I'm not sure he ever accomplished. Two different Lightbringers
quests and all he really manages is to get Arkat/Gbaji/Nysalor to
mutually self-destruct. I'll bet Lokywhozits got off scot free.

Interestingly, this is exactly what happened in the Fall of Malan
freeform. Malan and I (Maniski) both led full-on heroquests. Both
were at best vaguely conceived rush-jobs. And neither one turned out
the way we planned them. I wanted to give my fledging Karandali tribe
legitimacy (not giving a fig about the problems in Malan's kingdom,
couldn't see it from my house), Malan wanted to Heal the World by
performing the Lightbringers Quest. (Although I still have no idea who
he was trying to fetch from hell. Frohdi maybe?) Low and behold, we
ran into each other, him seeing me as the Maggot Emperor, and me seeing
him as Vadrus or Humakt (I was doing the Fight Your Brothers, Marry Ernalda,
Prove You're King myths). In the end, neither of us got what we wanted.
He brought me out of hell, and I ended up High King of Dragon Pass (with
no authority, no lands, no tribe, no tax base, no nothing but a seven year
appointment with the chopping block.)

Typical, really. That's what you get for putting Trickster on your
ring and having a movement rune. Things never quite work out the
way you planned.

And that's okay. Because We Won! Orlanth won, Harmast won, Malan and
Maniski won, as so did Argrath. Maybe we went hunting for boar and
came home with deer, but that's okay to the Orlanthi. 'Cause you still
get to brag about being a great hunter. And more importantly, everybody
gets to eat.

To summerize, was it all a Dragonnewt plot? Was Argrath just a tool
of the Moon's evolution? Do we feel used? Don't know, don't care, and
hell no. The Lunar Empire ended up on the scrapheap, Sartar Ruled the
World (for a little while) and all was good. Pass the venison.

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