From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Mon 30 May 1994 - 17:40:16 EEST
Nick in X-RQ-ID: 4234
> I know Joerg differs, but I think there is no distinction between the early
> Return to Rightness Crusade and the later God Learners.
The great distinction I see is that the crusaders were just common people fighters, not head-high-in-the-clouds philosophers, but extremely pious (and naive) people led by their wizard clerics. These wizard-clerics may have been partly God Learners, but I daresay that most of them were similarly naive shepherds (or what comparison do Malkioni wizards use) who just believed the doctrine spewed forth by the indoctrinators, who certainly were influenced by the God Learners.
I think this far Nick and I do agree.
My diverging picture of early 2nd Age Jrustela has its roots in the origin of the God Learners. Little has been published about these.
Glorantha Book (from Genertela Box) states that Jrustela was settled by Seshnelan colonists already around 500, when they had the leisure to form the earliest God Learner study groups.
"The earliest practitioners were the Seven Explorers, a collection of wizards and priests of Eradinthanos, a city in Jrustela." (p.24)
The Return to Rightness Crusade was launched in 675, two centuries later. The text states that "The philosophy of the God Learners soon dominated the entire Jrustelan church." First of all this makes me wonder how this church, which harboured priests as well as wizards, might have looked like.
The roots of all Jrustelan churches will have come from Seshnela. There may have been local cults and local humans before the advent of the Seshnegi, possibly including Aurelion worshippers. There might have been (Brown) Vadeli, given the maps in Uz Lore, although the Old Drill mountains seem to have been uninhabited by Mostali at the end of the Second Age. (The dwarf kingdom might as well have been Slon.)
We know that in Seshnela there were several forces polarizing. The first schisma was between Malkioni and (Arolanit) Brithini. This predated the Dawning, but was intensified by Hrestol's revelation.
Cults of Terror and earlier sources suggest a deep split between the knight and the wizards faction. I think that the "wizards" mentioned were Brithini Zzaburi, and that the Malkioni wizards weren't considered full wizards by them.
The next, internal division occured around 200 ST when the Hrestoli revisionists, called the True Hrestol Way (doesn't this remind you of Return to Rightness?) established control of the Malkioni church and "reformed" the Malkioni church. I can't get rid of the picture of elite Ironside regiments hunting down royalists in Seshnela, and forcing them to leave the country. BTW, the ban on Tapping was effected at this time! Previously Tapping was not _banned_ by the Malkioni! A good starting point for the Galvosti heresy. They also condemned "the corrupt pagan ways of the Serpent Kings." What did happen to the (pagan?) royalists? I suppose a lot of them boarded Waertagi Dragon ships and moved to Jrustela, founding colonies or swelling existing ones.
The "corrupt pagan ways" apparently consisted of Ancestor Worship, see
Cults of Prax p.14:
"Other distant lands [such as Seshneg in the Dawn Ages] developed this
form of worship until they made their ancestors surpass the mighty gods
in power, or elses reduced the immortals into mere superhuman heroes or
multi-national ancestors."
And worship of deities at first (the Serpent Kings descended from
Seshna Likita, who thus became both ancestor and deity).
(In this light, how would they have worshipped Chalana Arroy? <glib
smile>)
This theistic strain becomes evident in Hrelar Amali as well, where the
Seshnegi raised temples to Orlanth and Magasta. (RQ-Companion, Jonstown
Compendium)
As I said above, the losers in this debate are likely to have emigrated
at least in part to the colonies where the strictures may have been
less severe. This might explain both the presence of priests and the
disrespect to deities displayed by the later God Learners.
Sometimes between 200 and 370 the Seshnegi attack on Brithos must have taken place, which reduced Seshnela to the state Arkat encountered around 400. Seshnela was crushed, the colonies must have gained some freedom, and in the end the linealist faction came to power again: "The Kingdom of Seshnela was small, with the king engaged in purging other dynasts of their inheritances, when Arkat came to the land at the end of the Dawn Age."
I'd guess that the one-time ruling True Hrestoli suffered a severe
setback at the battle of Brithos (the first, the later God Learners
made another attempt, and vanished), which would have caused not few of
them to seek exile in the colonies.
This would bring _both_ kinds of fanatic religious groups of Seshnela
to the continent of Jrustela, similar to the settlement of North
America by the Europeans, where all extreme religious groups sought a
new life there.
Seshnela recovered from its weakness after Arkat left to scour Ralios, and regained much of its power. I wonder what the Malkioni of Akem and around Sog City looked like in this time. They must have had closer contact to Brithos than the Seshnegi (as their more closely related language indicates). I doubt they were in any respect similar to modern day Loskalmi Hrestoli, rather like the Carmanians before their forced exile, minus the Talor elements.
This gives me the more polytheistic Serpent King faction on Jrustela, which may even have sported priests, and the (over)zealous True Hrestoli monotheist faction, which started modern Malkioni doctrine. The latter are the ideal breeding ground for any crusade...
> The very first God Learners used their techniques to learn about God.
Given the collection of belief variants above, and the presence of the priests, I dare say that they wanted to learn about gods and humans as well.
> Then they turned them [the techniques] to
> bind demons into servitude, or cast them utterly from the world.
Why demons? We talk about ancestors here!
> Compare to King Solomon binding the Jinn.
Is this in the bible? If so, where?
> But in their later years they lapsed into
> bloated heresy and decadence, worshipping graven images and having zillions
> of concubines and so on. So their Empire was overthrown by the Wrath of God
> manifesting all over the place.
This implies an immanent Invisible God, doesn't it? <G>
> A good cautionary tale for Malkioni, which
> allows them to have been Good to start with, Bad at the end.
The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The God Learners must have done next to half of the length, following the trails of the Second Council. "New section under construction! Signed: Argrath"
One of the most benevolent experiment of the God Learners is the Issaries Desert Tracker subcult. Should this cult succeed some day, Genert might be revived, and all Genertela would bloom again.
Hmm. A variant idea: The God Learners were overthrown by Zzabur when they dared to threaten Brithos again. The landing ventures of the Seshnegi in Brithos remind me of those of the Dunedain in Valinor, in Second Age Middle-earth. Maybe Zzabur released the Red Vadeli to effect this. Should anyone rediscover Brithos and manage to assault it, even the Blue Vadeli might return.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
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