Waertagi, Golden Wheel Dancers, Mistress Race Trolls, elder Giants, Brithini – Glorantha has many relics of the Godtime that exist (to the extent they still do) in defiance of the world of Time. They continue their ancient ways, often refusing to acknowledge or accept Time and its changes. All of these peoples are dying out to a greater or lesser extent. The Golden Wheel Dancers were presumed extinct, at least until 1621. And yet the mortals that have proven most successful in Time also seek regular interaction with the Godtime. They experience the Godtime and then take those experiences to change the mundane world. Not so that the mundane world is the same as the Godtime, but that the ephemeral present and the recurrent eternal may interact on each other. Such mortals – in particular, the Orlanthi, the Lunars, and the Malkioni – have played a disproportionate role in the History of Time.
And this is something that a lot of folk miss – the Orlanthi and Malkioni are not trying to revive some Golden Age (or Storm Age) empire from thousands of years ago. They are using very different methods from the Godtime that have proven very successful to survive in Time.
The Lunars have gone a step further. They revived a dead goddess and created a Godtime inside of Time. And this Made in Time Godtime is being used at least in part to revive a Golden Age empire. The whole thing is a mad paradox worthy of Illumination points if studied for any length of time!
But the Orlanthi aren’t trying to recreate the Kingdom of the Vingkotlings or something similar. Any more than Alexander was trying to recreate the Trojan War when he invaded Persia. They can recognize parallels, patterns in the Godtime, but they are aware that this is not the Lesser Darkness, even if now contains the Lesser Darkness (and other parts of the Godtime).
The idea of recreating the Empire of Wyrms Friends might have far more appeal though…
The Orlanthi, Lunars, and the Malkioni. They are all good at recognizing the value of an old story or myth at providing guidance for dealing with a different now – but they also can see that the story is not a perfect guide.That’s probably why they are good heroquesters.
The Orlanthi know that their greatest hero – Harmast Barefoot – assembled the pieces of the Lightbringers Quest from countless stories. And they also know that those stories were not sufficient guidance for him to complete the Lightbringers Quest. He needed to bring in new elements and new experiences to succeed.
How do they know that? Because Harmast told them that. Twice.