Tell me about Theya.

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

How did a Sun goddess become so important to the Orlanthi and why did she fade?

[metcalph]

16 minutes ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

How did a Sun goddess become so important to the Orlanthi and why did she fade?

She's not a Sun Goddess, but the Morning Star.  I don't think she was important to the Orlanthi but the God Learners called them that because they were so influential in the Dawn Age.

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

Sorry, solar goddess.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Orlanthatemyhamster

[AndrewTBP]

Guide to Glorantha p.31

Quote

The Orlanthi are widely known as the Theyalan culture by outsiders and scholars. The name was given by the God Learners and is taken from the native name for the goddess of the Dawn, Theya, because this seminal culture was so important in the Dawn Age. Although most of the outside world still calls them Theyalans, they usually call themselves Orlanthi, after their own chief god.

Glorantha Sourcebook p.131 (IMHO the waiting star is Theya)

Quote

The reborn gods reached the edge of the world at the place now called Theya's Gate. There a star waited for them, and even the Darkness was glad to see them. The flush of Dawn, the rosy goddess, came. Arachne Solara stood upon the Gate of Time and cast her net across the universe, catching each surviving thing and binding it into the new world. Her child was born then, concealed by the net and protected by the strands. The child was called Time. The gods marched across the barren world, bringing warmth, light, and flower to awed survivors.

 

[Sir_Godspeed]

Although unsaid, I believe, the wide spread of the Orlanthi culture is largely due to the efforts of the Lightbringer Missionaries, and their spread is kinda analogous (perhaps even mythically/ritually) to the journey of Theya.

[AndrewTBP]

Guide to Glorantha p.650

Quote

Theya: This Jumper appears in the eastern sky. It brightens from dim to piercing, then vanishes, encompassed by the rising Sun. She appears about 4 hours before Dawn in all seasons, and is sometimes visible for up to an hour after sunrise. She jumps the same distance into the sky every night. Theya first appeared shortly before the Dawn, and is recognized as the harbinger of the reborn Sun. Each morning she opens the Dawn Gate in preparation for his return to the world.