One of Greg’s deep background notes that I refer to an awful lot when I think about Glorantha is this chart that he put together to try to think about the basic sources for the Lunar understanding of the 3 percepations: Mystical, Cosmological, and Materialist.
So the top line is the Zolathi source of the Mystical. These were the mystics who followed Sheng Seleris. They shunned all magic use, and claimed to be in touch with the Gods beyond the Gods. They were immune to many magics, and their presence often brought terror to the population.
The second group off a partial Pelandan source of the Cosmological. This chart also shows some changes to the Pelandan to accommodate the new Carmanian Learnings, such as the recognition of Idovanus from being the God of Order to be the Universal Harmoniser.
The bottom group is the Western source of Materialism, a good representation of Second Age Fronelan Malkionism. It is a very old and simple form of Western philosophy which sees creation beginning with a physical form.
Don’t treat this as canon – nobody makes these charts and they are dramatically oversimplified! But it is a good source of inspiration and understanding about various Gloranthan philosophies and some of the currents that lie beneath the Lunar Way.
Greg Stafford notes
The Red Goddess herself is not a result of this – rather the modern Lunar Way is influenced by how these three groups perceive the Red Goddess and her actions. And the Lunar Way has schools that primarily look at Her using only one set of tools.
This is one of my touchstone reference pieces. Very influential on how I view the Malkioni and others.
