[Glorantha] Ompalam

[Malk Williams]

> I was wondering if the "creator" of the monotheistic west has an origin
> story like that in the early times? Was the West always like it is now,
> with one supreme deity?

I think it depends which way you want to look at it.  Is a people elevating
their local tribal deity to omnipotent proportions, or are they deciding
over time that the concept, principle or entity that they actually worship
is that of the Single, Universal Creator God, but they continue using the
name with which they are familiar.

That might sound like sophistry, but there is a difference.  If two tribes
worship what they call the Creator God, but approached the concept from
opposite angles:
Tribe A would say "We worship Almighty Flid, He is the One True God who
created all things, and yours is inferior/an imposter/ a figment of your
warped imagination."  
Tribe B would say "We worship Almighty Dilf. He is the One True God who
created all things, in your culture I hear you call him Flid."

Of course in either instance, there will be elements of worship that are
left as legacy from the times when Flid and Dilf were worshipped in other
ways.  Ompalam is a god of slavery, and elevating him to the status of
Supreme Being means that his worshippers have elevated the very concept of
slavery to that of a Divine Truth and Universal Constant.  Presumably the
Aeolians have a similarly lofty view of the Divine Universality of Storms,
or perhaps Change.  (I know nowt about them myself, so feel free to put me
straight on that).

Cheers -

Malk.