[Glorantha] God Learners

[Peter Metcalfe]

Jeff Richard:

[in a post on the heroquest-RPG list]

>That being said, the God Learners were often terribly misinformed as
>to the nature of Glorantha, the gods and these underlying mythical
>truths.

They weren't.  They just the "Most Learned and Least Wise".  If they
were so terribly misinformed about anything they would have never
been able to do what they did.

>  The God Learners never understood Orlanthi mythology

Which is quite an astonishing claim since the God Learners
understanding of Orlanthi mythology comes from Harmast's
Saga given to them by Likstrandos (Tales #7 p46).  If you
mean that they did not understand the variation of Orlanthi
myth then again I must agree.  They knew that the various
Orlanthi had their own myths but what they were interested
was in the One True Myth.

>  (heck, they thought the Orlanthi didn't have a sun god,

As well as the Harmast's Saga already pointed out before,
I should observe that the God Learners were in contact
with the Orlanthi in Heortland, Slontos, Ralios and Fronela
and had Orlanthi working for them in Jrustela and Umathela.
I doubt the God Learners were so dim as to not notice the
existence of Elmal worship through their vast range of
contacts.

>were completely
>unaware of the Allfather aspect of Orlanth,

An argument that rests upon Wyrms Footprint being the
sum total of God Learner knowledge about the Orlanthi
(a highly dubious proposition).  Given that the clan
chiefs and tribal kings came from the Allfather aspect,
it is far more likely the reference to Orlanth Rex in WF
is actually the aspect of Allfather and that the cult of
Orlanth Rex (as revealed by Alakoring) was thought to
be an uninteresting subcult that was primarily used
against the EWF.

>and didn't understand the role of Heort at all),

Considering that virtually all Heortling rituals start
of with the same invocation "We call upon Hant,
Heort and Hara", I doubt the God Learners were
so stupid as to not wonder why Heort was
mentioned there.

>they had not idea about Dara Happan
>mythology (no idea about Shargash and figured they were the same as
>the Pentans), and so on.

They knew Shargash as Tolat (known to them in Teshnos and
Pamaltela) and had only a vague understanding about Dara
Happa simply because they never reached Dara Happa in force.
Their understanding of Solar mythology comes primarily from the
Pure Horse Tribe, the Fonritans and the Teshnans.  Since they
were interested in the One True Mythology, it was not necessary
for them to have a in-depth knowledge of Dara Happan mythology.

--Peter Metcalfe