History of Gloranthan Art, Part III – Third Age – Holy Country

And then comes a long period of war that culminates in the Dragonkill War. Which divides the world into Kethaela and Peloria.Kethaela starts with that late Second Age Esrolian style. Sensuous and baroque. Though regressed a bit and gets worse and worse at it. Since you don’t have the actual artisans present anymore. Until Belintar shows up. And Belintar oversees a rich artistic renaissance. And he’s of course a thorough God Learner, with baroque references on top of baroque references. So the style remains mostly the same, but revitalized. Not “realistic” but symbolic and mythological. And he draws on the Esrolians, the Heortlings, the Caladralanders, the God Forgotites, the trolls, and the dwarfs to create a visual melting point. And the Kethaelans get their technical skills back. The way the ornamentation and detailing is made is changed as a result of communication from the dwarfs of Gemborg. Intricate decoration.

At some point, the style is a reference to a reference to itself. So whereas the Second Age stuff was naturalistic verging on weird abstractions (like in the eyes and so on), under Belintar, temple architecture was naturalistic but not formalized.

Is this the first reference to Belintar being a God Learner? When I wrote that I did not mean he was a Jrusteli God Learner from the Second Age. Rather his mind-set was God Learner – he looked at the Hero Plane from many vantage points and synthesised many stories together.

In many ways, he was a more successful God Learner than the God Learners.