Greg Stafford

Another of the Form Runes which was popularly reproduced was the one we call the Plant Rune. The first one was universal, while all of the copies of it were less grand, more specific, more suited to their world, and tremendously more numerous.

Entering into the world of mythology can be a dangerous task. One of the greatest dangers is the assumption of Truth. Truth is not usually what one expects it to be, especially in the world where the gods live.
I think that we inevitably project our own Truth upon even the world of the gods when we visit it. We, when there, are still the Small Gods, and we are utterly incapable of understanding the entirety of a mythological event. So we perceive that event in the manner which is true to us.
If we visit again and revisit that mythological terrain, and it maintains its stability for us, even when we interact either consciously or in self defense, we take it to be a true mythic vision.
However, even that firm Truth may not be infallible. Other creatures, even other beings in that same vision, may perceive and participate in the exact same events but with a different understanding, experience, and Truth.
Nonetheless, despite these apparent differences, both are True. Harana Ilor lives in many places in the mythic world.

To illustrate some differences, here are two creation stories about the Green Age, both pretty much including the same events and many of the same entities. Both are true.

The Human Story

The First Tree

The Tree Form was one of the first Runes which proliferated from One to the Many. It was a shape, a sacred mold which was able to make more marvelous, copies of itself. Many have said subsequent trees and plants are inferior, by their very Nature as well as in actual structure to the Great Tree. After all, no trees in the known world grow several types of animals now, even among the menagerie of bestial vegetation from the East Isles which can be found for sale at their food shops in our own waterfronts of Nochet.

Aldrya

In the earliest times lived a gentle god of light who shyly met a tender goddess of wetness, and one lay upon the other like the sunlight on the sea. Where they met they mingled and made something new, and this something was born to be the Young God named Flamal.

Flamal is the progenitor of all plants. Flamal progenerated with the feminine force which is called Grower. Flamal grew his many descendants. First made were the Vronkalings (conifers), and next the Embyli (broad leafed).

Flamal was a god of bright potentials bursting within him. He is called by many names, and known by many races, but for the beings who rule in the forests he is the Father of Seeds. Among those he knew his most beloved was Ernalda, who was turned bountiful by the meeting with him. They had a child, and her name was Aldrya.

Aldrya was loved by two jealous gods, each of whom threatened to destroy her if she loved the other. She sought refuge among the greater gods of the Gloranthan Court, and they gave her a place to remain forever upon the slopes of their citadel called the Spike. Thus was the first tree planted upon the cosmic mountain.

She bore wondrous fruit there, and others took these fruits and planted them far and wide. Each of these was born to be a Great Tree, and each of these was called Aldrya. The Great Trees bore fruit in their turn and covered the earth with vegetation according to the needs and capacities of the place. Thus, despite differences in local variation, all children of Aldrya know they are one kin. The vast and peaceful Green Age spread across the earth.

Aldrya took for herself a husband who is named Shanassee, who was a son of the goddess of Love. His presence added new depth and expression within the goddess, and together they brought forth the souls and spirits of the forest. From the trees came the beings known as the Dryads, who were the spirits of the trees, free to move but ever bound to the woody groves. From smaller plants, brush and wild shrubbery, came the Runners. They are less subtle and intelligent than their larger kin. Even in the Green Age these beings filled the woods.

When it was fashionable among the gods to do so Aldrya took the rune-being called Man, who was the first of his race, and with him created a race like him for her. These were the People of the Woods also known as Elves, who are also counted among the Aldryami.

The pixies have a different origin. They are said to have been fashioned by Shanassee for his wife out of some spare magic left over from the creation of the world. He gave them to her in a small turn of phrase and a jest to make her smile.

The Green Age filled itself with more life as the gods made more and more creatures. There was no problem when the woods and fields filled with beasts, but the Aldryami did not recognize the inherent dangers to come when beast began devouring beast. The ancient woods slowly reacted to the growing disaster of the Gods War, and more often such innocent bystanders were bruised and broken by the greater war.

During the fighting of the Gods Age, the new Power, Death, came into the hands of the elves through a wager by the Trickster. They took the Power and enchanted it upon the edge of their sacred earth tool, the Axe. With this they slew many Dwarf foes, and this turned cold all the world's stone forever.

Zorak Zoran, a troll god, then stole the weapons from the elves, and as he escaped, slew Flamal, father of Aldrya and beloved of all the gods. Thus the Axe then became the bane of elves. In her grief the goddess Ernalda commanded all of her children to withhold their bounty from the world until Flamal was returned to life. Aldrya obeyed and slept the unending sleep, and her children began to die, one by one, in the cold darkness.

The liberation of Flamal is sometimes called the "Secret Quest" of the Lightbringers, or the Greater Bonus by some. However, even his return to life would have had far less meaning without the long struggle of the Protectors on earth to save the sleeping forms of their wards.

The Protectors were led by High King Elf, the leader of his race from among the undying Green Elves. He led a beleaguered band of elves through the whole of the Darkness, ever struggling to protect the empty bodies of the forest from their foes. In this he was aided by the gods Arroin and Yelmalio, another wounded survivor, but he hated the god Oakfed, the Wildfire deity who devoured the once-magnificent forests of Prax and slew almost all there.

High King Elf was among those beings present in Dragon Pass for the I Fought We Won Battle where chaos was turned back upon itself.

Thus when the dawn came and the spirits of the living returned again to the world there was a prepared place for the Aldryami, who returned to their old places, inside of Time.

The Elf Story

Elves, which are walking plants, are not really like humans, even though both types of creatures are truly People. The similarities between elves and humans are due entirely to their being copies of the primal Person rune. In fact, all the humanoid races are copies of this primal rune; their deep differences stem from the different interpretations and materials of their creators.

Elves do not have gods. When we humans interact directly with the spiritual power of the Aldryami, however, they might as well be. We can't do any better than to treat them as deities. The Gods of the Elves are not recognized as separate or divine entities by the Aldryami. Rather, these "deities" are parts of the Group Mind which all plants share, and with which the elves may commune and of which they expect to become a part.

Recognizing the elven Gods as distinct individuals is at least partially a human approach. I can only remember them as gods now, from the time I was an elf. I know that I felt otherwise then, but now, as a human again, I can not remember them except as gods. So as gods, I tell you of them.

The First Plantings

In the beginning, there was the one, all-encompassing, the primal entity of which all else has been born. Although the original being was all things, he was also no things, and thus we name him It. When the time was right, It became the twins, Grower and Taker. It became all life, and all death, all that was and all that was not.

As Grower, It bore the life force of the universe. It was the spark of creation, the drive of expansion, the originator of life. From itself, Grower made the world. It became Arroin, the nurturing water, Gata, the protecting earth and Yelmalio, the warming sun. Finally, It became The Seed.

When Grower became the world, it made Arroin, who we call the healing waters, the nurturing provider, and the first father. In the new world, Arroin was the sea encircled the world and the rain which fell down upon the forests. Arroin provided Seed with nourishment.

The second of the Deities of Life who came from Grower was Gata, who we call the All-mother, the Enclosed, and the beautiful. In the new world, Gata was the earth that sat at the middle of the world, the rich field where life was first born. Gata provided Seed with sanctuary.

The third born entity of Grower was Yelmalio, who we call the unfailing light, the enveloping warmth, the wise father. In the new world Yelmalio was the great sun rooted in the middle of the sky, the light that shone upon the whole world. Yelmalio provided Seed with life.

After Grower had become the sea, the land and the sun, It became Seed. Seed lay within Gata's protective embrace, nurtured by Arroin and Yelmalio, and it became Flamal.

We know Flamal by many names. He is the father of all, the bearer of the life force, the unifier of spirit. As Flamal, Grower was reborn within the world. Flamal was The Great Tree, planted at the center of the universe, encircled by land, sea and light. From Flamal, there came many seeds, which spread throughout the world. The first seed fell upon the earth, and that was Aldrya. The second seed fell upon the sea, and that was Murthdrya. Finally, a seed was lifted up to the sun, and that was Yelmdrya.

Aldrya is the Eldest Sister, the first daughter of Flamal born in the world. She is the mother of all plants grown upon the land, and is also the all-encompassing mind which includes all born upon Gata, both those growing and those taken. The Brown Elves, the Green Elves and the Yellow Elves are all part of Aldrya.

The second daughter born of Flamal was Murthdrya. She was nourished by healing Arroin. Murthdrya is the mother of all plants grown in the sea, and is also their communal consciousness. The Blue Elves are a part of Murthdrya.

The third seed of Flamal's seeds was lifted up to Yelmalio, Yelmdrya was born. Yelmdrya is the mother of all plants grown upon the Sun, as well as their collective soul. The White Elves are still a part of Yelmdrya though they are now gone from the world.

All grew, and the whole of Glorantha was covered with lush growth. Upon the top of the spike were the great and pure White Forests. Upon its slopes were the Yellow, and lower down were the vast expanses of green covering the hills and flatlands. They grew some more.

At the end of the Age of the Grower, the entirety of creation was filled with life. But, since the Taker had not yet come into the world, the Growth continued, straining at the fabric of the universe. A tiny crack appeared into the universe, and a bit of Oblivion seeped into the world of Potential.

The elves, the mobile vegetables in the shapes of people, were the first to recognize another force which came to exist from overabundance. They call it Oblivion, which opposes the It-Potential. The Potential includes the powers of both growth and death, the eternal cycle of life and rebirth. Oblivion, however, takes things away without ever returning them. Chaos is a part of Oblivion.

When Oblivion came into the world the first of the elves were broken from Aldrya's group mind, which had previously encompassed the whole world. They experienced self consciousness, and were shattered to be torn from the embrace of the forest mind. Their own religious ceremonies today still all act to link them with the annual cycles of vegetation. Any of them who are not distressed by their separation are considered to be Rootless, and pitied by all Aldryami.

The Second Plantings

As Taker, It became the embodiment of entropy. It was destruction, dissolution and extinction. In all ways, Taker was equivalent to Grower, yet opposite. In truth, though, they were one and the same. A common elf truism states

"There is no life without death; there is no death without life." When Grower grew the world, Taker took itself; thus for a long time, only the power of growth surged in the world.

When Flamal's presence in the world had been fulfilled, Seed appeared once more in the world. The Seed which had been Taker was buried in Stone, hidden by Darkness and burned by Fire. All good things became bad. Water turned to fire, earth turned to stone and light turned to darkness.

Where nothing had ever grown, a new creature came forth, and that was Zorak Zoran, who was Taker reborn within the world. Zorak Zoran began to move across the world, taking all he saw. Yelmalio fell first, and only Darkness was left. Beautiful Gata could not protect herself, and so she was destroyed, leaving sterile Stone before. Finally, Zorak Zoran turned upon Arroin, and so the healer fell, his mending waters becoming hurtful Oakfed. Then, Zorak Zoran turned to Flamal, and he took him into himself.

When the world began to darken, Arroin's nurturing waters ruptured and became the devouring flames of Oakfed. They burned the forests and scorched the land.

As the power of Taker rose, Gata began to harden. She became unyielding, infertile and sterile. Nothing living could grow in Akem (Stone) and so life began to disappear.

Finally, Yelmalio began to dim, and only the cold of Darkness was left. The freezing cold crept between fibers and organs and shattered Flamal's tender children, leaving only cold ice and lifelessness.

In the Darkness, Yelmdrya's (White Elf) children could not survive, and instead of the Growing race a new race of Takers came into existence. These creatures were the trolls, and the first among them was Kygor. The children of Kygor seek to consume all, enclosing the world in their darkness.

Nothing could grow upon the sterile earth, and thus Akem made his children from himself. Thus did Mostal come into the world, and his descendants, the dwarves. The Mostali are as sterile and lifeless as the god that birthed them.

Oakfed burned everything that it touched, leaving nothing living in it's wake, but still it brought forth new life. Promalt was the first of the flame men, who marched through the world, trying to increase the domains of flame. The burning flame men sought to reduce the world to charred ash, but they only succeeding in destroying themselves, for now they are seen no more in the world.

In the Age of the Taker, there was one perfect moment where the Grower and the Taker were in balance. Many new being came into the universe, combining the aspects of the twins. Thus were born the black elves, who lived off the death of others, the red elves, who lived off their own dead, and finally men and beasts. But, the moment was quickly gone. The Taker continued to grow; the Grower continued to be taken.

As the Age of the Taker progressed, Zorak Zoran moved across the world slaying all that he saw. Even the Gods fell, first Yelmalio, then Gata and Arroin, finally Flamal itself. Only the Gods of darkness, stone and water were left behind.

It soon became obvious that the excesses of the Taker were as bad as the excesses of the Grower. The universe of Potential grew weaker and weaker, and Oblivion once more seeped in, this time as Chaos. The entire world was dying, but not the good death of the Taker, rather the bad death of Oblivion. It would never be reborn again.

Many elf heroes fought valiantly during the Age of the Taker, all trying to preserve the sacred growth. These heroes included High King Elf, Vronkal and Chalana of Arroin. But these protectors all fell. Eventually, all creatures of the Grower were dead, and the takers began to take themselves.

The Third Planting

The Seeds, which had been buried deep, opened once again. Grower and the Taker were reborn again in the world. In the past, the Grower and Taker had been discoordinate, working disharmoniously rather than working together. As a result, the universe was nearly destroyed. This time, new beings rose.

Babeester Gor was the Taker reborn, but her aspect was slightly changed. Part of the Grower was within her, and so she took that which was unrecoverable, so that new Growth could occur. Babeester Gor destroyed all of that was left of the world, so that it could begin anew.

Voria was the Grower reborn, but she too was changed, now containing a bit of the Taker. She accepted Babeester Gor's death, knowing that it would bring better life. When all was gone, the spark of Potential in the sea of Oblivion nearly extinguished, Voria recreated the world.

When Voria recreated the world, the flowers bloomed etc.

In the new world, neither Grower or Taker was all-powerful. They both controlled equal parts of the world, and thus, at last, the Universe was at harmony.

In the annual cycle of flowering spring to falling autumn, the aspects of the world remained in harmony. For five centuries the forests rested easy and thick, content with their interactions with the other races.