[Glorantha] Re: Aeol and Esvular

[Joerg Baumgartner]

The Aeolian thread has gone on too long without me involved...

Rob Helm

>   I went back through the preliminary writeup of the Aeolian Church on
the
> glorantha.com site. Some quasi-obvious conclusions and my speculation
follows. I appreciate any comments.

>     Conclusions
>     Aeol founded the Church in the Dawn Age, not in mythic times:
"[Aeol]
> became one of those most rare persons of the Dawn Age: an Out
> Traveler, who went to distant realms upon a Waertagi ship."

In southeastern Kethaela, we have two dominant population groups (plus
Pelaskite fisherfolk): the Orlanthi-descended Esvulari and the Ingareens
(Brithini of God Forgot).

The name "God Forgot" relates to the Ingareens, IMO - the people who
forgot (or otherwise lost) their god (Malkion, during the 5th Action).
They arrived by Waertagi cityship, and probably were another group of
Enrovalini dissidents with Zzabur's handling of affairs in Brithos.
Malkioni who lacked Solace, or something.

Aeol himself is a bit more problematic - IIRC he is a Kachasti, probably
one of the Genertelan Kachasti. This either places him before the Nidan
uprising of Vadeli and Mostali, or makes him a survivor of that conflict
(if only by virtue of not having been there when this happened).

Aeol comes to Esvular, faces Orlanth (or Vingkot, or some other lesser
manifestation), identifies him as Worlath, and defeats him (saves the
city). As a consequence, his superior ways are adopted by the Esvulari
(likely some lowland group from the Downland Migration which made it into
the foothills of the Storm Mountains when those lands were flooded,
already uprooted).

So the Esvulari accept Aeol's Creator super-essence as supreme being, and
the local array of deities as the Creator's somewhat wayward but still
venerable cohorts. Probably practicing mixed worship (similar to my 12
years old, RuneQuest-based ideas) until they accepted the Abiding Book in
the middle of the Imperial Age (between 700 and the coming of the
Zistorites).


>     Aeol brought the Church first to Western people (with a capital city
> Aladis) that was distant from his homeland: "A lost colony of their
countrymen trapped on a distant island. They worshipped the One God but
spoke a strange tongue."

The strange tongue likely was a Theyalan dialect. This makes their worship
of the One God a bit puzzling. Were they the descendants of a group of
explorers gone native?

>     Aeol introduced Malkion to Aladis before founding the Church: "He
set
> up a church and taught them the ways of Malkion, as God was called when
he was Man."
>     On behalf of Aladis, Aeol defeated an enemy storm god in a contest:
A
> tribe of barbarians ... made another effort to destroy the good
> peoples. They summoned Raging Thunder to cast snarling lightning upon
their foes....[Aeol and the god] confronted each other. They turned the
world around and each set their uttermost Truth against each other.
Naturally the Truth of the One God prevailed, and the terrible storm
became just a person."

I concur with Peter that the tribe of barbarians likely became ancestors
of the modern day Esvulari (the citizens of Aladis did, too). Aeol
confronted the barbarian hero who heroformed the Thunderer, and he broke
his identification with the archetype (compare "Morden defends the Camp",
the Big Man episode).

>     This victory enabled Aeol and the people to venerate gods: "Aeol
> replaced all blood sacrifices with offerings of bread shaped like
animals. Aeol summoned the revealed men to come to the altar and they
did, and they accepted the sacrifice, and they agreed to be Great Allies
of the Church and grant feats to their followers who made the
sacrifices."

I think the votive bread in beast form is generally accepted. The question
is how did Aeol get it first - did he have it preparedfor the conflict? If
so, why?

>     Speculation
>     The people of Aladis were descended from the Dawn community of Jon
> Barat (God Forgot). The barbarians attacking them were Orlanthi from
what is now Esvular. Aeol ritually defeated Orlanth for that people,
enabling Orlanth veneration and (perhaps) preventing normal sacrifice.
Those that took up veneration merged with the people of Aladis to become
the ancestors of Esvulari Aeolings.
>     References
>     http://www.glorantha.com/hw/cultlong_aeolus.html
>   http://www.glorantha.com/support/dawnPopulation.html

Talking about the Dawn Population sites: I would like to point out that
the Heortlings and other Theyalans under the Only Old One experienced a
Silver Age after I Fought We Won - pre-Dawn, but an era of more than just
survival. An era when Hantrafal introduces sacrifice, with a few (barely)
living gods able to respond. And a sacrifice which enables Orlanth to
proceed to/in the Hall of Maggotliege.


Peter Metcalfe

> Rob Helm:

>>Conclusions
>>     Aeol founded the Church in the Dawn Age, not in mythic times:

> Unfortunately the draft outline of the Aeolian Church has been
superseded
> by the Heroquest rulebook (p167):

>:         Saint Aeol founded a unique monotheist church in southern :
Heortland several millenia ago.  Aeol was a contemporary of Malkion :
[...].

Hence a wanderer, not a Waertagi passenger. And probably a wanderer of now
drowned lands below the Solkathi and Rozgali Sea. Aladis... the name has
some similarity to Atlantis. :)

There is no reason to believe that the Aeolians had a city in Heortland
which survived the Greater Darkness unscathed. They and their beliefs and
magics somehow survived, they failed to become Heortlings (just like the
Pelaskites).

There's always Refuge, a sometimes hidden place to harbour the
downtrodden.


>: Aeol organized a local church that has survived for millenia.  [...]

We have no idea where they survived, though. The Dawn Population list has
only Seapolis Karse, Nochet and Talar Hold as centres of survival in the
region. The Ingareens appear to be more like Zzabur's and Froalar's tribe
of Malkioni than Kachasti, and are the source for God Forgot proper.

By the time of the Battle of the Verge, the Esvulari had a city in
southern Heortland, probably close to Prax, where Harmast was captured,
and experienced his first post-initiatory rites among the spectators of an
Esvulari rite (from a snippet Greg read from his Harmastsaga). (And it was
not the Heortling city/town on the Bullflood where he went after his year
marriage.)


> The other events of Aeol's life the book is mute about but I think it
likely that Aeol originally settled Aladis rather than rediscover it 
and defend it from Barbarians.

IMO Aeol encountered a community of barbarians who had adopted an earlier
(group of) Kachasti explorer(s) and some of their teachings. If they lived
in a city worth the term city, I propose it has been destroyed during the
Darkness. Preferably flooded.