From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk
Date: Tue 05 Apr 1994 - 21:32:11 EEST
Got GRAY, at last.
pico-review: Take the description `for Glorantha nuts only' seriously. Firstly, notice that it is indeed pretty obscure stuff, and you only get 86 pp for your $25/L20. Also, what wasn't previously clear (to me, anyway) was that this material _will_ (eventually) be republished in a more `conventional' form. (After the Lunar book, though, so don't hold your breath.) So if you're the patient type, you'll be able to get twice the material for half the price, when it comes out For Real. Naturally, I don't practise what I preach. ;-)
An initial thoughtlet or two:
Who are the Three Planets at the ReAscent? There are many more than three candidates, it would seem. And what happens to Antirus at the ReAscent? Does Yelm basically `reintegrate'?
It amazes me how little press the Theyalan `Dawn' gets here. (Although it does correspond to the start of an Age.)
I find the similarities, and differences, between Shargash and A Certain Air God intruiging. Don't ask me what to make on them, though.
> Nick Brooke in X-RQ-ID: 3432
> > I can't go on about this -- I'm the Man Who Knows Too Much. But try Yelm,
> > Murharzarm and Arraz for starters. Just my opinions, nothing official.
Joerg:
> Now that you say so, this makes more sense if the sitting Emperor (GW 1)
> is Murharzarm, the middle figure beind the throne Yelm (Lord of the Middle
> Fire)
The staff this figure is holding is interesting: I would say it looked more like a strange version of the Arraz symbol/rune than the Yelm one, but who knows. (Perhaps the horzontal lines are ten solar rays?)
> and the first figure in the upper Row of 25 Arraz, the king of servants.
This chap would certainly have the wrong `Rune' to be Arraz. Nor is it Murharzarm's rune, of course. Conceivably it could be Yelm, preceding his Celestial Sons (sun + planets). At a large push, Yelm could be GW (Court) 0, but this is much more likely to be Ezltaythingumijig.
The key question is indeed "Whose enthronement is this?" At a push, it could be any of 'em.
> The other figures are most likely the attendants
> from the Four Directions. So deities in row 1 come from the north, deities
> in row 2 from the east, in row 3 from the south, and in row four from
> the west.
What about the miscelleanously-directioned planetary children in row I, and all the Lodrili in row II?
> GW I-18 looks suspiciously like a certain Air god wielding lightnings.
It certainly does. I can't think why it should be Antirius, but it can't really be Shargash (wrong place in the lineup, he should be (and is) in the Celestial Sons lineup), and Lanatum/Oralantus would surely be with the other `rebels'.
> What bugs me most is the absence of the names Alkor and Yuthu in the
> text. These deities are presented in Genertela Book as the Gods of Alkoth
> and Yuthuppa in Time. Both names are connected to the city names, and make
> sense that way.
The fact that these deities are stated to have been born in time would suggest that either worship of them as City Gods was only begun after the resettlement, following the existing name; or that the `history' in GRAY is mostly ficticious, and that the city was actually only founded within time.
> If Plentonius knew other names for the city deities, why
> didn't he know other names for the cities as well?
Not all cities are named for their City Gods, just as not all lands are named for their Land Goddess. (Boldhome, frinst.)
> Kargzant is almost as enigmatic. Plentonius makes him the Solar
> ruler who reigned before the Dawn.
Martin Crim:
> Kargzant the Rider is the name of a Yelmic cult or sub-cult,
> according to Stephen Martin's essay "The Cold Sun" in the RQ Con
> program guide. He makes the identification of several Yelmic
> cults with the stages of the Yelm cult as published in WW:
> Kargzant=Rider, Shargash=Warrior, Buserian=Priest/Elder,
> Murharzarm=Emperor.
This doesn't sound a likely cult structure to me, combining as it does specifically Dara Happan and specifically Nomad deities. This essay sounds interesting, though, any chance of a reprint of this along with the Lore Auction stuff, RQ-Con Ghods?
Alex.
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