Can any much more experienced lore keepers explain p12 to me?

[Shiningbrow]

Simple question... which will have a long answer...

P12 of RQG has a nice pic of religious significance.

I suspect a lot of newbies (and probably a lot of oldies as well) won't get the full significance.

I do get Yelm, Orlanth and I presume Ernalda in the centre pillar of what I presume is Kero Fin (or, The Spike...). The characters across the top are the holders of the various runes - p22 & 47). But, some are clearly not what I think...

Would someone please care to enlighten us?

(sort of like Prince of Sartar, with lots of people chiming in noticing all the little bits.. and sometimes arguing over the significance of a swirl somewhere... :p)

Edited April 23, 2019 by Shiningbrow
Just noticed...

[metcalph]

It's from the Glorantha Sourcebook p66 and is described there as

Quote

This fresco is from the City of Wonders and depicts the deities of the Celestial Court and the Great Elementals..
Top row: Glorantha; Second Row: Ouroboros; Third Row: The Celestial Court — Uleria, Orenoar, Harana Ilor, Acos, Larnste,
Ratslaff, Tylenea, Kargan Tor.; Fourth Row: Aether.; Fifth Row: Umath; Sixth Row: Gata, flanked by Genert and Pamalt, and
the various land goddess.; Seventh Row: Zaramaka, with Daliath, Sramake, and Framanthe.; Eighth Row: Dame Darkness,
encompassing the Father of Demons and the Mother of Space.

 

[Wrestlepig]

Although a lot of it is very similar to what you'd see with the usual gods, it's actually depicting the super-ancient mythological past of the Green Age (or before then). It was probably made by God Learners depicting what they knew of that era, or maybe under Belintar's esoteric guidance. So the background is the Spike, topped by the mystic ideal of Glorantha and the infinite Dragon Ouroboros. Then there's the Cosmic Court, the original holders of the Power Runes. Then on the spike we have Aether, the original Fire/Light/Sun/Sky god, separated from Gata the primal Earth by Umath, the first Air god. The ground is covered with lots of different Grain Goddesses and has the dragons Hykim/Mykih, the parents of Beasts. Curiously the Trees resemble the Illusion Rune.

Under that we have the seas with some sea gods, and then we get the Underworld with lots of nasty demons and things I can't really place a name on. In the middle we've got Dame Darkness, the original holder of the Darkness Rune, and contained within her is the Mother of Space and the father of demons, who looks a lot like Zorak Zoran.

Most of the deities here are either too abstract, distant, inhuman or actually just a weird understanding of a rune to actually be reached, but their children or replacements are far more familiar. To put it one way, the conclusions you drew about the image were not unreasonable.

[David Scott]

8 hours ago, Wrestlepig said:

Curiously the Trees resemble the Illusion Rune

The trees are the plant rune.

[Wrestlepig]

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

The trees are the plant rune.

That's true, although it is interesting plants have the 3 dots in a triangle. I'll be back in 3 days with a giant post that uses runic symbolism to prove that plants don't exist.

[g33k]

30 minutes ago, Wrestlepig said:

That's true, although it is interesting plants have the 3 dots in a triangle. I'll be back in 3 days with a giant post that uses runic symbolism to prove that plants don't exist.

For extra credit, prove that the reader of the post doesn't exist, except in the imagination of the Aldryami ...

[The God Learner]

33 minutes ago, g33k said:

except in the imagination of the Aldryami ...

My vegetable love should grow 
Vaster than empires, and more slow;

 

[Joerg]

6 hours ago, Wrestlepig said:

That's true, although it is interesting plants have the 3 dots in a triangle. I'll be back in 3 days with a giant post that uses runic symbolism to prove that plants don't exist.

I might dig out an ancient post showing that Truth is inherent in Illusion and vice versa - each is the white space of the other. The winter/dead shape of the trees may be much closer to the Truth Rune.

 

As to dating that image in Glorantha, it should correspond to the middle Golden Age, after Umath's birth but before his dismemberment. The extra mountains in the back of the ground level might refer to those mentioned in the God Learner maps of the Guide, or they might be the lesser mountains from the Otherworld Holy Country (the Spiral Map) pulled into this depiction.

[Thyrwyn]

22 hours ago, The God Learner said:

My vegetable love should grow 
Vaster than empires, and more slow;

 

So coy...