Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

God Time paradox of the Red Goddess cult

Posted on September 29, 2021

Some food for thought – Almost all of the Lunar temples outside of the Lunar Heartlands are unusual in that they do not have a ready connection with the history or mythological landscape of the area. When Dragon Pass was resettled, the settlers knew that Orlanth, Ernalda, the Lightbringers, Yelmalio, etc. all “resided there”. In many cases, temples were built on the old temples from before Dragonkill. Boldhome was built in a valley sacred to the Orlanth cult since First Age. Clearwine Earth Temple had been an active place of Earth worship since the Second Age at least, and the Shaker Temple has been the home of Maran Gor since before the Dawn. The physical structures might be new, but the place has been connected to the god since forever.

Not so with the Lunar temples in Dragon Pass. The Red Goddess lived in Time and her myth-creating deeds were all in the Lunar Heartlands. The Seven Mothers get temples first, and they conceptually relate to the Seven Lightbringers – but they were mortals in Time. Their temples are places where the Red Moon (visible in the sky) can be contacted, not necessarily where the Seven did anything in Time or mythology. This is tied to the whole God Time paradox of the Red Goddess cult. Go to the God Time and you aren’t going to see the Red Moon – it isn’t there! But you can go to the Red Moon in the Hero Plane through secret paths Lunar heroquesters have discovered/made. And even stranger, sometimes the Red Goddess herself is encountered in the Hero Plane – even though she didn’t exist then!

The Red Goddess is not “just too subtle for hillbillies.” It requires a mystical Illumination to get it – but that is not an urbane thing (the Red Goddess herself was from a village in the sticks). Her Myth-Self does not properly sit with how the God Learners theorised how the God Time functions. It slices through it at a right angle like Pluto’s orbit.

This is fantastically disturbing to anyone who is not Illuminated. Most Lunar apologists and scribes don’t get this either – being unilluminated themselves. And so they rely on the tropes of “superior knowledge”, “secret wisdom”, “more civilised”, and “world-conquering empire” – much to the disgust of actual Red Goddess Illuminates.

There’s a reason that the bulk of the Lunar religion consists of more practical and prosaic cults like the Seven Mothers, Hon-eel, and Hwarin Dalthippa. You can get to the Red Goddess from there, but the path is difficult and arduous – but that is fine you don’t have to!

The Malkioni, Orlanthi, Doraddi, Trolls, and the Praxians all have the same basic objection to this – it is a deliberate embrace of Chaos into the world. Horrors like the Crimson Bat or the Moonburn cannot be justified with mystical mumbo-jumbo about “world healing.” All of these religions conclude that the Red Goddess used Chaos to achieve Goddesshood and that her presence between Time and the God Time threatens the cosmos.

The Blue Moon is well known in Gloranthan mythology. But the Blue Moon was killed in the God Time and fell to earth. Everyone knows that.

The Red Moon is not blue. Everyone knows that.


Note that the month and year of this post are correct, just not the date.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Red Goddess

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • Role-playing in Glorantha
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Orlanth Cult Compatibility Chart

    The Orlanth cult has one of the broadest arrays of …
  • New Canon

    With the Lightbringers, Earth Goddesses, Prosopaedia, and Glorantha Sourcebook out …
  • Coming Soon Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology

    Coming out next month is the Mythology book. This was …
  • Battle of Heroes Campaign

    So as part of several projects I am working on, …
  • Current Reading for RQ

    Some of the light work reading for the projects I …
  • Notes on the Holy Country IV

    So the Holy Country is a little smaller than Dragon …
  • Notes on Harrek the Berserk II

    By the time of the Dragonrise (1625), I suspect Harrek …
  • Notes on Belintar II

    In the Holy Country, Belintar largely let the locals rule …
  • Hendrikiland or “South Sartar”

    There are about 175000 humans in the lands between the …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest Glorantha on MeWe
  • Glorantha Wiki on Fandom
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • In RuneQuest Glorantha does everyone now use Praxian animals instead of horses.
  • Pixies in the Aldrya cult
  • Bless Crops, duration and runepoints question!
  • "When Dealing with Other Species, a creature's CHA score is reduced by 10."
  • Rune Magic by Associated Cult - C is missing?
  • Running Six Seasons in Sartar
  • zzaburi perspective of the invisible god
  • Volcanoes in Pamaltela
  • Daka Fal Walked The World
  • Ancestors — Real & Imagined

Popular Tags

Avalon Hill Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) Fonritian pantheon FR G+ post Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Issaries Jar-eel Kralorelan pantheon Lhankor Mhy Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Maps Michael O’Brien Mongoose Nochet (metropolis) Nomad Gods Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) Praxian pantheon RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Subcult Tales of the Reaching Moon Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • CHA4042 The Prosopaedia – Contents

  • Coming Soon Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology

  • Orlanth Cult Compatibility Chart

  • References for Glorantha (2021)

  • New Canon

  • CHA4041 Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology (2023)

  • Ralforisus

  • Mralota

  • Murharzarm

  • Mouladehas

  • Monkey King

  • Mohengus

  • Mistress Calm

  • Miroune

  • Miirdek

  • Miapora

  • Mahaquata

  • Maluraya

  • Masdoumari

  • Malubadou

©2023 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme