I had the pleasure of occasionally cornering Greg and getting the chance to ask him about these sorts of things. In general, Glorantha is full of a lot of “one-liner” references that never really got fleshed out. By “one-liners” I mean that they are mentioned only once or twice and often with just a single sentence. Another such example of a one-liner would be Falangian Wine in King of Sartar.
When I asked about that Greg just said, “That’s up to the reader to decide what it is”. Me: Yep. And a lot of these one-liners should not and will not get defined outside of the individual reader.
The effort to answer all questions, to resolve all mysteries – well, that is what destroyed the Second Age. Ponder that carefully and get a bonus to your Illumination role next Sacred Time!
The impulse to answer all questions, to resolve all mysteries – that is the core of the God Learners philosophy. THAT and not things like the Monomyth or mythic synthesis – is what caused the catastrophes and endangered the world.
Many mysteries are and should remain mysteries – the answer should be experienced and personal, and then not spoken of except to those who have experienced their own personal answer except in the most banal and open of manners. That is certainly how Gloranthans approach them.
To those who want to us to answer in writing every mystery – rather than have you experience an answer through playing the game – like Zola, I say, “J’Accuse…!”
Many of the big secrets should also be personal experiences. I don’t mean future events – those are just there – but what those events mean, why they are, and so on.
