The Entekosiad: an introduction (2012)

Submitted by Heort on Sun, 07/10/2012 – 11:12

I’ve read gloranthan books for years, played and led campaigns in Glorantha for years. But I’m far from a scholar yet and I want to progress, because I’m a good boy.I want to read soon The Entekosiad but the book has a strong reputation of being a deep and harsh reading…1) What would you say to present me the book and help me to be more comfortable at the beginning: what is it about, taken as a whole, from an objective and non-inside point of view?2) Why is it worth reading it, from your point of view? How does that book is supposed to help a good boy like me to write gloranthan scenarios?

Submitted by Daniel Adamov on Tue, 30/10/2012 – 19:40.

It is a very interesting read that provides great insight into Pelorian culture and mythic history. The thing is, and this may as easily be an advantage as a disadvantage, that culture is drastically different from the Theyalan stuff most of us are used to – in fact, at first glance it may be hard to believe that this is still the same setting. I do think it is indispensible for trying to understand Dara Happa, other Pelorian cultures and the meaning of the Lunar paradigm for the inhabitants of the Imperial Heartlands.

Submitted by davecake on Sun, 07/10/2012 – 13:31.

It is a collection of myths, some of them very old, from Pelanda and other regions of generally the area of North-western Peloria and modern Carmania. The myths are not all from the same culture or myth cycle. There are a succession of myths from different eras. There is a ‘framing narrative’ about a Lunar Heroquester, Valare Addi, who travels and heroquests to discover or experience these myths. Valare Addi is attempting to prove that the goddess Entekos is an earlier manifestation of the Red Goddess, but she ends up learning that she is not. It is a very fascinating source on Gloranthan myth, because there is a lot of complexity and ambiguity there. You can see different versions of the same basic myth show up a few times with different names for the god, for example. There is a lot of historical (or pre-historical) narrative that gives a different version of events to other sources like GRoY. Is it worth reading? In all honesty, if your campaign isn’t set in that region, and you are mostly looking for scenario ideas, it might not help much at all. But it has a lot of deeper truth about Glorantha, and a lot of quite fascinating and poetic material IMO. I love it, but I love it despite it having limited direct applicability to gaming.

Submitted by Heort on Sun, 07/10/2012 – 15:04.

Ok, thanks for that answer!

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