So we know that the God Learners assembled the monomyth – that is the cohesive framework for understanding the events of the God Time. Furthermore they created several maps of the God Time, showing how the various event locations relate to each other and created the mundane world of Time.
With this information, the God Learners and their allies were capable of incredible feats of magic, and were able to hold together a world empire. Spells could be created knowing relationships that affected the local variant of deities in ways unknown to their local cult. They were able to explore the Hero Plane and plunder it for magic and strange artefacts and treasures. Great magical spells could be cast, taking advantage of their great knowledge of the relationship between the Runes, places, and cults.
Of course, the God Learners didn’t start from scratch. To begin with they had fragments of Zzabur‘s knowledge. Zzabur, the great sorcerer, was a witness to the Gods War and wrote much of what he saw. These fragments, combined with the teachings of Malkion and Hrestol, formed what was called the Abiding Book. They built upon this knowledge to craft spells like that which summoned Tanian, the god of fiery water, to defeat the Waertagi.
The God Learners also built upon the mythical synthesis achieved in the First Age by the First, Second, and Broken Councils. All recognized the myth of I Fought We Won and all survivors participated in the survival of the cosmos. The Theyalans got Orlanth and Yelm to acknowledge each other, and countless local spirits and gods were recognized as fragments of the larger Lightbringer story. Other deities were identified against the Gods Wall or the Starlight Frame. They even included the stories and myths of non-humans, as Kyger Litor, Zorak Zoran, and Argan Argar were powerful on the First and Second Councils, as were the Maker and Stone, Aldrya, High King Elf, and others. With the Broken Council and Nysalor, this mythical synthesis expanded beyond central Genertela. During the Gbaji Wars many parts of the God Time were explored in novel ways.
Greatest of these mythic explorers was Arkat. He personally experienced the secret initiatory mysteries of at least a half-dozen cults, and delved so deeply into the Hero Plane that he even attacked himself and gave himself an Unhealable Wound. Even today, Arkat stands out as the greatest explorer of the mythic realm, and he learned more from his failures than from his successes. He traveled into some of the most dangerous places of the mythic realm, into places of Darkness and Death, and mastered both himself and magic. Arkat always treated these secrets and discoveries with respect and reverence, even if their mortal guardians were often angered by his actions.
The God Learners took all of that and ran with it. By 740, the Dark Empire was defeated and the Cult of Arkat destroyed and plundered. By 775, Jrusteli adventurers aided by the God Learners seized control of Kralorela and Teshnos. And in 780 Robcradle was founded by the Jrusteli. All of these events gave the God Learners access to magical secrets, and the monomyth and mythic maps were confirmed and refined. For the next century and a half, the God Learners aided and advised the Middle Sea Empire (aka the Jrusteli Empire).
The God Learners produced no heroes despite their great knowledge. Instead, they treated the Hero Plane as a *thing* to be plundered, a source of magic and power. They used it to create terrible spells, conquer vast lands, and to fight against the Empire of the Wyrms Friends (who also adopted much of their learning). In the end, it turns out the God Learners were both correct and spiritually empty. When the cosmos turned against them and the oceans were Closed, their empire collapsed. Their former subjects rebelled against them, and Jrustela sunk below the seas.
So for example, there might be a remnant of a God Learner Mythic Map that shows the path from the Storm Lord to the Well of Daliath, and suggests the route to the Cloud Lady, the White Moon, and the House of Dew on the Shoreline is preferable to route to the Bridge to the Pillars of the Sky and across Ernaldela, for the Womb is to dangerous for sorcerers. If you can make it across the Ocean Sea, you can sneak into the well and grab a draught of Daliath’s wisdom.
Is there a myth of this? No. This is a path through the Hero Plane the God Learners figured out and used to take to get secret wisdom from the deep.
Stephen R. Marsh said Just a note. There were two god learner secrets. I won’t share the common one but the true secret was using the hero plane to separate cause from effect (and thus avoid paying the costs of things).This collapsed, which was how doom found the god learners. They suddenly had to pay all the prices they had avoided. Arachne Solara’s web can never be truly escaped. Greg and I worked out several secret techniques during our several year long god learner a thon. Identification in order to get the god to repay previously unknown debts, using the hero plane to create an effect without setting forth a cause in the mundane world, jumping “down” the hero plane etc. The key was treating the hero plane as a *thing* which let them do amazing things but also doomed them.