why is Argrath considered an asshole?

[Leingod]

Bringing back the talk of Tatius and his choice of location for the temple, the Sartar Companion has this to say on page 80:

Quote

The  New  Lunar  Temple  in  Sartar  deviates  from this strict design and is intended to mend the Broken  Ring.  Lunar  sorcerers  divined  the  presence  of  a tremendous amount of  unknown energy in the foothills of  the Storm Mountains and calculated that it  will  expand  the  Glowline  to  cover  all  of   Dragon Pass, Prax and the Holy Country: the ancient refuge of  Rebellus Terminus.

In  1580  ST  Emperor  Militaris  ordered  the  plan   funded   and   implemented.   Worship   groups   were  seeded  and  linked  to  the  process,  and  it  has  continued  since  then,  stalled  more  often  by  politics  than by enemy action. But it has never stopped.

The   Assiday   family   committed   their   entire   fortune  on  this  and  was  a  driving  force  behind  the  Conquest  of   Sartar.  The  foundations  for  the  New  Lunar   Temple   were   laid   by   Governor-GeneralEuglyptus Assiday in Sacred Time 1612. “This is the year  we  remake  Sartar.”  Unfortunately,  Starbrow’s  Rebellion  ended  Euglyptus’  plans  and  delayed  the  project.  In  1617,  Tatius  the  Bright  arrived  in  Sartar  to  take  direct  command  of   the  project.  Needing  additional  laborers,  Tatius  ordered  the  destruction  of   the  nearby  Dundealos  tribe  and  enslavement  of   the  survivors.  Tatius  will  accept  no  delay  in  the  construction  of   the  New  Temple  and  his  success  will propel House Assiday into a dominant position within the Empire.

The "Broken Ring" is a Dara Happan name for the Ring of Orlanth (also called the Broken Planet); it was Umatum, which was broken by Shargash, and it corrupts and pollutes the perfect order of the Sky. So if we go with this, it's Tatius trying to bring back a "fixed" Orlanth/Umath/Rebellus Terminus who will fit neatly into some Lunar or Solar notion of a "perfect sky" to put his own family on top politically. Which probably helps explain why bringing back the Ring of Orlanth with its Three New Stars into the middle of this was such a serious disruption of his plans even before a dragon rose up and ate everyone.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Leingod

[Jeff]

6 hours ago, Leingod said:

Bringing back the talk of Tatius and his choice of location for the temple, the Sartar Companion has this to say on page 80:

The "Broken Ring" is a Dara Happan name for the Ring of Orlanth (also called the Broken Planet); it was Umatum, which was broken by Shargash, and it corrupts and pollutes the perfect order of the Sky. So if we go with this, it's Tatius trying to bring back a "fixed" Orlanth/Umath/Rebellus Terminus who will fit neatly into some Lunar or Solar notion of a "perfect sky" to put his own family on top politically. Which probably helps explain why bringing back the Ring of Orlanth with its Three New Stars into the middle of this was such a serious disruption of his plans even before a dragon rose up and ate everyone.

There are places in Glorantha where the magical geography facilitates bringing the God Time into the mundane world. In all of Sartar, the Lunars determined that this was a place of raw power, and not associated with any Orlanthi cult. A place of raw power, undefined (and unknown) by the local Orlanthi, the Lunars concluded they could use this place to transform Dragon Pass.

They did this by recreating the Perfect Sky in ceremony, reversing the As Above, So Below and using the power of the place to establish a correlation between what went on in the ceremony and what that meant in the heavens and God Time. This was a big ritual and Tatius carried some of the Emperor's power as he served as his Proxy in the rites.

A group of Orlanthi hero questers infiltrated the ceremony and appeared AT THE WRONG TIME. Orlanth's Ring emerged on the wrong day and time from the Stormgate and cut its way through the ceremony. The Lunars could not simply send troops to stop it without breaking the ceremony, they could not move outside of their roles without breaking the ceremony, and the Orlanthi were tougher than expected. They cut a spiral through the grounds, and stars fell from the heavens and planets were disrupted. 

Then when the Orlanthi got to where the Star Dragon's head would be, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. A True Dragon awakened. I do not think anyone planned this, except perhaps Orlaront Dragonfriend. The Dragon devoured the ceremony, the priests and heroes, and even several of the Orlanthi hero questers. It is known that Kallyr and the Sartarite leaders were horrified by this, although Argrath White Bull welcomed it and seemed to have some expectation of this or something like it (he had tried to attack the Temple grounds the previous season with his nomad army but was rebuffed at Hender's Ruins).

[Martin]

36 minutes ago, Jeff said:

There are places in Glorantha where the magical geography facilitates bringing the God Time into the mundane world. In all of Sartar, the Lunars determined that this was a place of raw power, and not associated with any Orlanthi cult. A place of raw power, undefined (and unknown) by the local Orlanthi, the Lunars concluded they could use this place to transform Dragon Pass.

They did this by recreating the Perfect Sky in ceremony, reversing the As Above, So Below and using the power of the place to establish a correlation between what went on in the ceremony and what that meant in the heavens and God Time. This was a big ritual and Tatius carried some of the Emperor's power as he served as his Proxy in the rites.

A group of Orlanthi hero questers infiltrated the ceremony and appeared AT THE WRONG TIME. Orlanth's Ring emerged on the wrong day and time from the Stormgate and cut its way through the ceremony. The Lunars could not simply send troops to stop it without breaking the ceremony, they could not move outside of their roles without breaking the ceremony, and the Orlanthi were tougher than expected. They cut a spiral through the grounds, and stars fell from the heavens and planets were disrupted. 

Then when the Orlanthi got to where the Star Dragon's head would be, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. A True Dragon awakened. I do not think anyone planned this, except perhaps Orlaront Dragonfriend. The Dragon devoured the ceremony, the priests and heroes, and even several of the Orlanthi hero questers. It is known that Kallyr and the Sartarite leaders were horrified by this, although Argrath White Bull welcomed it and seemed to have some expectation of this or something like it (he had tried to attack the Temple grounds the previous season with his nomad army but was rebuffed at Hender's Ruins).

This made me smile  as at the very time you were replying i was writing this....

What is Tatius doing?

Myth, memory, identity, and ritual performance combine with time, place, and structured understanding of the Celestial Realm, the cosmos, and the place of the Mortals and Gods within it.

The carefully selected and constructed religious dancing space in the new Reaching Moon Temple, will evoke the deep time of the mythical past; empowered by divine presence as narrated through enacted myth. In this way, the human space will be temporally and spatially linked with the cosmos; Tatitus will recreate the architecture of the Perfect Sky, and the celestial bodies thereof, on the ground. During the ritual of the temple consecration, the visible participation of the rotating cosmos will link the ritual to the stars and planets; not haphazardly chosen; but instead, ones which are connected to the divinity of Yelm and his daughter the Moon Goddess. Tatius will affirm his divine heritage by his performance in the ceremony. All this will be facilitated by the architecture of the Reaching Moon Temple; which structures religious space and the cognitive environment to create a microcosm of the Perfect Sky, while guiding the participant’s vision towards the night sky of the Celestial Realm.

The interweaving of timing, ritual performance, and myth will forge a renewed cosmological narrative, triggering collective remembering of the Perfect Sky and, ultimately, shaping ritual experience and cultural memory. The ritual re-enactment will narrate cosmically significant events, awaken collective identity, reveal the New Lunar Solution, and extend the Glowline.

[Jape_Vicho]

8 hours ago, Jeff said:

There are places in Glorantha where the magical geography facilitates bringing the God Time into the mundane world. In all of Sartar, the Lunars determined that this was a place of raw power, and not associated with any Orlanthi cult. A place of raw power, undefined (and unknown) by the local Orlanthi, the Lunars concluded they could use this place to transform Dragon Pass.

They did this by recreating the Perfect Sky in ceremony, reversing the As Above, So Below and using the power of the place to establish a correlation between what went on in the ceremony and what that meant in the heavens and God Time. This was a big ritual and Tatius carried some of the Emperor's power as he served as his Proxy in the rites.

A group of Orlanthi hero questers infiltrated the ceremony and appeared AT THE WRONG TIME. Orlanth's Ring emerged on the wrong day and time from the Stormgate and cut its way through the ceremony. The Lunars could not simply send troops to stop it without breaking the ceremony, they could not move outside of their roles without breaking the ceremony, and the Orlanthi were tougher than expected. They cut a spiral through the grounds, and stars fell from the heavens and planets were disrupted. 

Then when the Orlanthi got to where the Star Dragon's head would be, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. A True Dragon awakened. I do not think anyone planned this, except perhaps Orlaront Dragonfriend. The Dragon devoured the ceremony, the priests and heroes, and even several of the Orlanthi hero questers. It is known that Kallyr and the Sartarite leaders were horrified by this, although Argrath White Bull welcomed it and seemed to have some expectation of this or something like it (he had tried to attack the Temple grounds the previous season with his nomad army but was rebuffed at Hender's Ruins).

I always envisioned a giant open dragon mouth devouring the whole temple, as the dragon is said to measure several km. I wonder how did any of the orlanthi survive this, if they expected it they could have prepared some teleportation, but if they didn't I can't really imagine how did they avoid being eaten too.

[Kloster]

2 hours ago, Jape_Vicho said:

I always envisioned a giant open dragon mouth devouring the whole temple, as the dragon is said to measure several km. I wonder how did any of the orlanthi survive this, if they expected it they could have prepared some teleportation, but if they didn't I can't really imagine how did they avoid being eaten too.

I think 'Guided Teleportation', available to Orlanth Rune Lords, is the answer. No range problem, reusable, transports you to an Orlanth safe place.

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Jape_Vicho said:

always envisioned a giant open dragon mouth devouring the whole temple, as the dragon is said to measure several km. I wonder how did any of the orlanthi survive this, if they expected it they could have prepared some teleportation, but if they didn't I can't really imagine how did they avoid being eaten too.

Any Orlanthi in the Temple would be eaten, but any Orlanthi in the temple deserved to be eaten.

Those flying down to attack would suddenly stop and decide to fly back.

Orlanthi with Teleport could jump away and hope that the range is enough to escape the dragon.

 

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

Any Orlanthi in the Temple would be eaten, but any Orlanthi in the temple deserved to be eaten.

e.g. King Kangharl and all his attendants.