Sir_Godspeed

I think that was already the beginning of the end for the more free-flowing nature of oral polytheism, when the great literary religions arose, along with the standardization of narratives and so forth. I mean, this is literally where the term "canon" comes from.

Pluripresence is nothing new to the gods. Nor is... how do you put it... pluri-phasis...? Basically the idea that a deity can be alive and dead at the same time, or young and old at the same time, or in peace and at war at the same time. Presumably this also applies to Wakboth.

I really want to explore how this ZZ-SHSH relationship is expressed in the wider Tolat identity. Tolat is a fertility/love deity as well, for example, which is sorta shorn off/subliminated in Shargash (probably externalized into the identity of Alkor post-Golden Age), and entirely absent in ZZ, so is there some deeper symbolism there?

Big Dumb Dumb Theory coming up: Nysalor vs. Arkat is a repeat of Shargash vs. Zorak Zoran.

I'm wary of mixing the real-world Latin alphabet in with in-universe Gloranthan concepts.

Heh, I JUST watched that!

Would they even have Elmal, or some other named Cold Sun/Sun entity?

Is the bare bones similar to what appears here? https://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/dawnAge/nallindia.html

The point here is that Illumination is a profound, transformative personal experience with the All, the Ultimate. Illumination is not something you learn, but something you go through. The knowledge one has forms the context around the experience, the context which leads one to make specific conclusions about one's experience. It's the old "blind men describing an elephant by touch" thing, basically. So it would be bizarre if people DIDN'T profoundly disagree.

Eh, I mean, the East Isles have long traditions of mysticism that seem to result in what we would call Illumination (I THINK?), and I'd presume that in order to preserve these traditions, there is some kind of organization, whether that be mountain hermitages or wandering sages or what have you. EDIT: Kralorelans also don't seem to hyped about the Immanent Masters using draconic powers openly.

Sure! Now take a missionary expedition into Lunar heartlands and forment a religious awakening that seriously threatens Lunar stability. Simples! Jokes aside, I totally think it would mythically/theologically work, but the sociopolitical context is VERY different there. Seems like a helluva campaign though!

I like the use of Ernaldela to group together the smaller regions in south-central Genertela.

There's always the theory (Joerg's?) that the inside of the crater is spatially the same as the surface of the Red Moon.

I'm not entirely sure I follow, but the Lightfore complex's myths all basically include a point where they guard the dying world of the Greater Darkness. Antirius in Dara Happa, Yelmalio/Halamalo over the sleeping Aldryami forests, Elmal over Orlanth's stead and probably a dozen other instances I'm not aware of.

clos enuf!

As far as I understand, the TERM "occlusion" was coined by/used by the Lunars, to basically describe Illuminates whose worldview they regarded as wrong (like Sheng, for example). Given that it is, as far as I understand it, effectively an opinion and not something objectively concrete, it could be borrowed and applied to... well, basically any Illuminate whose conclusions you find wrong. I think the most widespread usage I've seen out-of-universe, is as a term for those Illuminates who embrace thier Illumination as a path to power (cf. Jajagappa's megalomania comment above) as opposed to the more renunciate and less involved Illuminates that orthodox mystic traditions tend to produce. This, obviously, puts Lunar Illuminates (who are the absolute vast majority of Illuminates in central Genertela) in a really interesting spot, given their obvious temporal-political agenda, at least collectively, if not necessarily individually.

Wouldn't a bunch of rando foreigners keeping a massive treasure hoard also be EXTREMELY susceptible to just be... you know... murdered by the local bigwigs and lose everything anyway?

Isn't, ultimately, occlusion just a term for "conclusions based on illumination that we don't like"?

Also its horns are curved!

There are! But when I started this project, I was mostly looking to develop a less detailed area. And honestly muskoxen lent themselves very well to the region of Far Northern Pent. The alternative could be reindeer, which of course is also present elsewhere (in Fronela and Peloria) or just making them hunter-gatherers. On another note, jeeez, it's been a year. I should put up some of the stuff I wrote before the second (and more demoralizing) lockdown occured.

Might be mythical precedent as well. Esrolia is where Gata gave birth to Asrelia, or whatever. Shaker Temple is where Maran killed her enemies and/or killed Grandfather Mortal and/or accepted human sacrifice for the first time or whatever. Point is, it might precede mortal decisions on the matter. Then again, the matter of mythical landscape and human decisions might be blurred to the point of the distinction being irrelevant, of course. That being said, if the Esrolians wanted to keep their core lands "clean", they sure messed up with the Necropolis.

Umath shook the heavens and destroyed or altered several planets/lesser suns. And even if they eventually managed to protect the skies, his fall caused the firmament to rock back and forth. Then his son straight up murdered the sun, causing ages of confusion and anarchy. I'm going to guess that the Solar Storm is a "failure state" where Storm never stops messing up the Heavens, pathologically.

If Darius worked on the same presumption (ie. taking other people's comments on the myth for granted) as I did, then I can see why he would come to his conclusion, because people kept writing about how Eurmal got Babeester drunk, and then "seduced" her. Those comments, while now in hindsight clearly not from the myth themselves, did make it seem rohypnol-y. Then @Eff cited the actual myths and showed that those comments were... completely spurious.

I believe there's some comment in either the Guide or possibly the online design notes for the Guide about how the Year King thing isn't actually a thing. So presumably non-canon nowadays.

Hey, that's not fair! There's plenty wrong with us Protestants too!