From: Alex Ferguson (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 10 May 1994 - 21:16:39 EEST
Peter Michaels:
> Let me also apologize to all the folks who have had problems reading my
> postings. I did not realize tha
> t they were such a problem, and will from
> now on follow Bryan J. Maloney's advice to make them easier for all to
> deal with. Bryan, thank you for pointing the problem out, and (most
> importantly) for being able to suggest a solution! :-)
I think we need to suggest a bit harder. ;-/ Funny linebreaking certainly makes text hard to read, and intra-word linebreaking is funnier than most...
> I'd like to hear other people's stories about the Heroplane and how they
> make sense of it in relation to Glorantha. My story currently is that it is
> the
> stage upon which the stories that socially construct Glorantha are played
> out. But this is just one story, one way to think about the Heroplane.
> Another story, such as Colin's, is just fine too.
> [...] Colin uses the metaphore of Arachne Solara's
> web of his Heroplane. To me, it's ALL a metaphore, it's all a story. All of
> the Heroplane is just stories!
Let me expound for a moment on stories, and webs. This is gleened from various places, and isn't to be taken as putatively official, the Only Correct View, or even original. Excuse the God Learnerish, quasi- graph-theoretic tone.
The Heroplane (Godplane, Godplace, blah, blah, as it exists now, not (necessarily) as it was in the Moment) is the Web of Arachne Solara. Each strand is a myth, or story, or occurrence of pre-history. Each nexus of the web represents a Mythic Event, that is, a "time" and "place" of pre-Dawn Glorantha where some particular thing Happened, and of course Is Happening. The strand between two Events is the Mythic Action which causes the two to be connected in the causality of the myth.
So, for example, "At the Hill of Gold, Yelmalio fighting Orlanth", and "At the Hill of Gold, Yelmalio fighting Zorak Zoran" are two (related) Mythic Events. The Mythic Action "Orlanth defeats Yelmalio" causes the Yelmalio figure (anyone following his Path) to move from the first Event to the second.
For Yelmalio read "The God of the Winter Sun of your choice", naturally.
To extend the Web metaphor, think of the (distinct) origin myths as being at the edge of the web, with Chaos, the Predark, Nothingness beyond. At the centre is the Compromise, the birth of Time, and Arachne Solara herself. In between run all the myths, interwoven, criss-crossing, fragmentary in some places, contradictory in others.
This leads to the question of the relationship between the Godtime, and Time. I see two main possibilities.
> What happens to people is real. Events are real. It is the story we make
> up about those events that is socially constructed.
But are _mythic_ events necessarily (objectively, factually) real, or could the heroplane itself contain, not just different interpretations of "the same events", but quite different, independant, even contradictory mythic events?
> What does it mean that Orlanth killed Yelm?
Note that these myths existed originally without the Theyalan myth referring to Yelm, or the Solar version to Orlanth. Are these two versions of the same thing, or two separate myths "reconciled" by the God Learners, or other funsters?
> But, what if the Orlanthi were to reinterpret their part of the
> myth differently? Maybe as something about Orlanth being called upon
> to kill Yelm in order to aid him in learning about death and dying?
> Orlanth as teacher, instead of Orlanth as bully? If the whole of Orlanthi
> society really believe this, and practiced this belief, and changed their
> rituals to reflect this changed belief, then I think the reality of Glorantha
> would be changed.
Orlanthi and Yelm have a perfectly feasible way of reconciling their differences, to wit, the Lightbringer's Quest/Self-Resurrection of Yelm. Each of these contains an implicit or explicit acknowledgement of the other, and should be sufficient as a basis for peace between Air and Sun if the worshipers were remotely so inclined.
> In addition, I think female trolls have a biting reflex on reaching orgasm.
> I see this response being almost uncontrollable in Mistress race trolls,
> somewhat controllable in Dark trolls, and almost non-existant in trollkin.
This is quite an amusing idea, playing up the "Black Widow" spider comparison.
> Any males who do die are probably
> just eaten. Remember, they weren't killed for food, it was "a crime of
> passion."
A female uzuz eating a male ukdo is likely to be a misdemeanour, at the best of times... Also, it's not impossible that the male might _consent_ to being eaten, given the likelyhood of there being significant ritual magical advantages to this, reproductively.
"Kelogash the Hungry's recipe for obtaining a True Birth: first catch your male uz [remainder censored]".
> Makes me wonder if the (admittedly rare) troll Uleria worshiper would
> draw the more masochistic type of client, becoming the S&M specialist in
> the temple.
<chortle> RQ and BDSM, the connection rolls on. Personally, I blame those _naughty_ Talesites: they don't call it the English Vice for nothing, you know...
Alex, eyeing the border nervously.
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