Gods/Goddess of Esrolia

[kalidor]

Hi!

What do we know  about Goddess Delaina? I know that she is one of the six sisters and a epitome of purity and self-restraint, goddess of Rhigos. I think that her cult deal with Earth and Truth runes. What do you think?

[Psullie]

Purity is Fire/Sky so what not an Earth/Fire mix. This could then place her as perhaps make her Ernalda's half-sister by a uniting between Asrelia and Veskarthan. Diamonds, being a pure form of Earth could be her domain. I somehow imagine that the Demiverge would have a thing for diamonds.

[David Scott]

2 hours ago, kalidor said:

What do we know  about Goddess Delaina? I know that she is one of the six sisters and a epitome of purity and self-restraint, goddess of Rhigos. I think that her cult deal with Earth and Truth runes. What do you think?

Have you looked in the Glorantha Sourcebook on page 90? There's more info on Delaina there:

Quote

Delaina: The goddess of wisdom, music, and magic. She is the tutelary goddess of heroes and is called upon in times of crisis. She is depicted as a golden-skinned goddess wearing a sheep-skin and carrying a poppy. Her priestesses maintain ritual virginity.

I'd say Earth & Magic. The poppy symbology is likely tied to her wisdom & magic, bringing both from the otherworld with ritual dance. The other iconography is up to you.

[jajagappa]

Delaina is Earth & Mastery.  Wisdom here is the petty and sordid facts that Lhankor Mhy gathers, but the experience that guides heroes.  As David notes, the poppy and the music are connections to the Otherworld that heroes venture into.  

She probably originates in the Delainan Hills near Ezel, or the land between Nochet and Rhigos which was termed Delainaeo in the days before the Gods War.  Delaeo is certainly her sister.  

There's not much else in extent texts about her.  This is one of the mythic outlines I drafted for her in the Nochet material.

Delaina and the Forking Paths 

Delaina was the youngest daughter of Asrelia, and consequently she was kept by Asrelia in her hut and not let out like her sisters.  Some say it was because Asrelia wanted a daughter to tend the Hut. Some say the other sisters were jealous of her golden skin and locked her in the Hut.

Delaina was lonely in the Hut for it seemed empty.  But at some point she became aware of the Song (birds in most stories), and she tried singing herself.  At first she was very bad and the Song was horrible to hear.  Then someone in the Hut complained that the Bad Song woke them up.  Some stories say it was the Mouse Queen or the Ashpit Serpent, others that it was One Gold Brow the Dwarf, still others that it was Spider or Eurmal or some other figure in Asrelia's Hut such as Short Broom or Long Ladle.  Whichever it was, that someone told Delaina that there was a way out and agreed to show her the way if she would only take them with her because they could not leave on their own.  They also tell her about or gift her with three tools (one was the Reed Pipes; one a pair of slippers so that Asrelia's guards could not track and follow them; and the last was usually said to be a pair of scissors).

Delaina escaped via the Mouse hole or the Snake Mouth or the Knot Hole or some other small hole in the Hut.  This led her to the Path of Action.  In a couple stories, when Delaina went out the Snake Mouth, she found herself dissolved to nothing.  But usually, she found herself at the first fork, the Fork of Illusions.  Confronted here by the Questioner of Existence, Delaina discerned the right fork to take.  Failure would have led to non-being, but Delaina succeeded here.

She came to the second fork, the Fork of Being (though the Green Sages claim it was the Fork of Ignorance).  At this fork, Delaina met the Speaker of Names who asked her what her name was, whether she was food or fuel, and what her essence was.  Failure would have led to the Bliss of Ignorance, a land of darkness where she would forever be prey and eternally eaten and consumed, but Delaina succeeded here though she had to use one of her tools.

She passed the Speaker of Names and came to the third fork, the Fork of Knowledge.  Here she encountered Lhankor Mhy who was recording everything.  He asked her the same questions as the Speaker of Names.  Delaina answered as before, but discovered that this was the trap of Knowledge and she was sent off to put the same scrolls upon the same shelves in the Great Library forever and ever.  She despaired to ever escape, but chanced upon her instrument (or heard a snatch of Song), and found the figure from the Hut here as well.  That being told her the way to cut the strand of knowledge with her scissors.  She did so but was forced to flee by the Guardians of Knowledge and entered a long empty hall.

She stopped in the hall, despairing of ever finding anything, and wishing she was back in the Empty Hut.  But she remembered the Song then, and started playing the Song on her Pipes.  She was bad at first, but persisted.  Eventually, she found that the hall was not empty but filled by many folk who wandered lost amidst the empty lands and came to join her in the Song.  Encouraged by these folk, Delaina led them on along the hall until they came to the entry into a vast cave.

Delaina entered the cave with her followers.  And there she was greeted by Ernalda the Queen and all her other Sisters, and they welcomed her to the Hall of Life.  Ernalda gifted her with the Serpent Ring of Wisdom and revealed to Delaina that she was truly the Mistress of Wisdom.  With Song in her Heart and the Wisdom at her Hand, she led her folk out from the cave and into the land that took her name: Delainaeo.

By Harald Smith 2017

[Jeff]

9 hours ago, kalidor said:

Hi!

What do we know  about Goddess Delaina? I know that she is one of the six sisters and a epitome of purity and self-restraint, goddess of Rhigos. I think that her cult deal with Earth and Truth runes. What do you think?

In what game system? Or are you asking where she fits into the God Learner classification scheme? 

[kalidor]

14 hours ago, Jeff said:

In what game system? Or are you asking where she fits into the God Learner classification scheme? 

Hi,

 

I am asking in RQG and Heroquest game systems. I wrote Truth because Truth is also about wisdom, constancy (not stasis) and order, isnt it?. At first Orenoar went to live with Larnste and the world grew well and quickly, i supose it means that the world grew orderly not randomly