The Silence is the origin of the Gloranthan universe. This is a dormant and impersonal force which is said to contain "everything within it, still One, the wonder of the universe which would come after it." Sometimes personified as a being without beginning and without end who is credited as the mother of Glorantha, Queen of the Universe. Always seen as a wondrous and awesome being, this entity has intelligence and benevolence without limit. An anonymous Dragon Pass poet sayd, "the wondrous Source, the egg of life, the source of wonder."
A body of deities, the Celestial Court, are said to have emerged from The Silence and made the world.
The Celestial Court was made up of three distinct parts: the Council of Pairs, the Elemental Deities, and the Elder Gods.
The gods of the Council of Pairs also are called the deities of Power. Each of the eight gods were associated with one of the ancient Power Runes:
The Elemental deities provided the mundane stuff of the universe. The eldest Elementals are prodigious entities composed of much matter and little intelligence or spirit. These primal Elementals then entered into a self-exploration of potentials which was called devolution. In this process the entities divided and subdivided themselves in a manner which isolated portions of their internalities as recognizably separate beings. Some of these lesser beings were mostly material, while others were highly spiritually developed.
There are always at least four elementals, and a fifth usually is added:
The Elder Gods are impersonal entities whose existence is basic to Glorantha, but who failed to attain any personal status in the cosmos. The deities who came afterward absorbed or mimicked their attributes and functions. There are, for instance, entities called the Maker and Grower, or the Great Mother and Witness.
The Celestial Court combined their powers and together built the center of the world. This ‘center’ is called the Perfect Palace on its interior, and its exterior was called the Spike. The Spike was the cosmic mountain, and it got its name from Mostal the Maker, who engineered the mundane construction. Mostal loved tools, and so called the place the Spike because it was the thing which nailed together all of reality and held it in place. The Perfect Palace was a place of harmony, beauty, and singularity. It housed the firsts of everything in the world and maintained everything in perfect order. Within its fastness the powers of creation expanded until they spread beyond the protection of the mountain of the. Spike. Younger deities left the unchanging mountain with its secrets and filled the universe with variants of the ancient schemes. Thus the world grew.
The Golden Age of the gods was a time when dreams were true, then stored for later generations to use as they might. In those days there was nothing but peace and harmony, and all of the cosmos expanded in love. Innocence was everywhere. It was impossible for anything to go wrong.
This era saw new types of beings. The Form Runes were introduced and the Young Gods were born. Said to be creations of the Celestial Court, each deity made a Form Rune by contributing to it. All the elements then tested the Form, each by its own evolving nature. First made was the Dragonewt Rune, and all the world was trod by races now extinct, whose lives and kinds must be guessed. Then came the Green Age, when the world was covered by vast forests and fields as the gods experimented with the Plant Rune. Next the world knew creatures modeled upon the Animal Rune. Finally came the Man Rune, and humanoid races spread across the world.
When the elemental deities and power gods grew to their limits of their fulfillment and filled their natural realms, the Young Gods were born. Here, at the borders of the elements, they discovered each other. There was such creative abundance in the world that the natural divisions of the world between elements did not hinder further expansions. The deities and spirits combined their beings and produced new entities. These Young Gods were the delight of the Celestial Court, who nurtured their strange powers and taught them ancient knowledge.
Many races and beings grew in the Golden Age, filling all of creation with their existence and bustle. All lived in peaceful harmony, overseen by a benevolent bureaucracy embodying the tranquility of the age.
The Sun God, Yelm, is said to have been the Emperor of the Universe when he ruled the world. He was advised by his elder’ brother, Dayzatar, and aided by his lusty younger brother; Lodril. Yelm wed Ernalda, the Earth Mother, and many other’ deities were counted in his pantheon.
During this time many cities and nations were made. There was no need to work, for the earth brought forth its own food. all water was pure and healthful to drink, and anything was willing to offer any aid or assistance. Peace was said to be Yelm’s Cloak, and so the world lived beyond Time.
The peace of the Golden Age slowly turned into the strife of the Gods’ War. The process was long, and came in small steps.
The birth of the god Umath started the Gods’ War. It was no fight or conflict, yet it immediately led to violence. Umath’s first recorded activity was to demand a realm of his own to be equal to those of his parents. When none was available, Umath made one for himself by ripping asunder his father and mother,, Thus the sky was separated from the earth forever. This perennial violence set the pattern for the children of Umath as well.
Umath devolved violently, producing a brood of unruly entities bent on taking or making their own realms of influence. They were joined by many other ambitious or frustrated Young Gods. A long period of growth, change, and movement followed in the cosmos, as these new forces found their places. The power of the Storm gods rose at the expense of other pantheons.
During this time the institution of worship spread as the lesser races sought protection and support from the greater entities. Sometimes the peoples could tame the violence of the gods, but more often not. As the fighting worsened, the races became more dependent for survival upon the gods. When deities began competing for the worship of lesser races, the trouble spread rapidly. The Golden Age eroded. Imperial Yelm contested as an equal with barbarian Orlanth.
The power of Death was either the first of the New Powers or the last of the old. It came first to the hands of Humakt (who used it on Grandfather Mortal) and then to Orlanth (who used it on Yelm). The death of the Emperor of Light felled the last strongholds of the age, and instituted a new reign.
The Storm Age, also called the Lesser Darkness, began when Yelm was killed, and left the world of the living to follow Grandfather Mortal into the land of Death. Other gods of light also failed: Dayzatar the Sky God drew further away, Lodril was first buried and then imprisoned by a god of Darkness, and lesser gods (like Yelmalio) were wounded or hid themselves away.
More than Darkness spread across the age, for life followed the light into the lands of the dead. Spirits of plants, animals, and minerals took the path of the dead and were lost to the world. Without light the earth soon slept, and the world seemed barren when compared to the Golden Age.
The gods fought when they wished. The Storm gods dominated, but the Darkness pantheons and Sea deities also fielded powerful forces. Glorantha became a broad, barren land swept by angry storms, crushing ice, brutal volcanoes, and pieces of the sky tumbling dead to the earth.
During this time new races of humans were born in the world, and sometimes the old ones adapted or survived as slaves. Despite the hardships, cultures throve, and grandly barbaric societies gladly and grimly fought for existence.
Unchanged in all this was the Celestial Court. They had held aloof from the petty squabbles changing the face of their world and lent themselves impartially to anyone capable of wielding the powers, even remaining unattached when their powers were used in new ways by exploitive intelligences. As the crisis grew, the Court could not act to halt their own abuse. Instead they engaged in "immortal discourse, celestial debate, and the scribbling of scrolls." The world disintegrated around them, at last straining the immortal strength of the Court beyond endurance. It was as if an illness came upon the gods. Tremors shook the immobile Spike, and the cosmos weakened.
The growing instability worsened conditions for gods and men who craved peace and security. Gradually there came to be other things in the world. At first these creatures seem to have seeped through cracks in the world’s logic, oozing through and infecting the surface and the interior of reality. They were not recognized at firts, but Chaos had found its way into the universe and the gods were frightened by its possibilities.
One god who lived at this time is said to be the last born of the Young Gods. He was called Rashoran, and none know his parentage. At first Rashoran went about calming the frightened gods, teaching them to be unafraid. It is said that of all the cosmos only he did not fear what he did not know. He taught this knowledge to some of the other gods; most of them succumbed to the Darkness without a struggle after learning from Rashoran, though a few seem to have been fortified, such al Humakt and Uleria. Three others found that they were not afraid, and that they could use the fears of others to their own ends. One of the first things they did was to destroy Rashoran to keep his secret to themselves.
These murderers are known as the Unholy Trio. Hatred, selfishness, greed, and jealousy motivated them. The Unholy Trio made the end of the world. They wove a great magical ritual of potency far greater than anything before accomplished, for they had discovered the wonder and power of primal chaos, and used it magically to strengthen themselves for what was to come. They then engaged in their rituals of chaos-birth. When it was done, the world was changed, and new forces roamed the world: Wakboth the Devil and Kajabor the Black Hole, the two main gods of Chaos.
Several locations are believed to be original sources for the chaotic armies which began overwhelming the world. Most of these places are on the far edges of Glorantha, where the forces of order were weakest. Genertelan legend says that the major chaos army approached from the north, and that Kajabor led it.
The survivors of the gods were notable warriors and leaders, and were inured to the rigors of war and death. A great alliance of deities met upon the Fields of Plenty to fight these new enemies. Genert led the gods’ army. This earth god was the ranking spirit there, though not the greatest fighter.
The forces of chaos fought to utter victory. The gods disappeared in a maelstrom of previously unknown forces. True Death, divine entropy, sent some gods into flight, some into inertia, some into more rabid defense. Many gods sought refuge in the Spike, relying upon the ancient Celestial Court for protection.
From all sides the armies of chaos were drawn toward the Spike. The inhabitants prepared a spirited if hopeless defense. The once-impregnable Spike was rent by cracks, and it groaned with misuse. The most ancient powers of the cosmos were decrepit and indifferent. The Young Gods did their best and did it well, delaying chaos and learning some secrets to fight it. But the armies of chaos soon swept down the corridors and into the chambers where the Celestial Court prepared for their end. The chaos forces burst upon the powers of creation, smashing the ancient Runes and scattering them to the winds. The gods and goddesses collapsed and were hacked to pieces or otherwise abused by their foes.
The final struggle unbound anxious energies which had been bent and twisted by eons of divine misuse. A cosmic explosion freed the pressure, vaporizing the Spike and its inhabitants. A great vacuum opened in the center of the world, from which stepped the gods of chaos. This began the Greater Darkness.
The Age of Terror is another name for the period known as the Greater Darkness. This was the end of the world for most Gloranthan entities, and a period of pain, fear, and misery for the rest. Parts of the world vanished. Parts were isolated and set adrift in a shapeless existence without hope. Nothing was tenable, and even change was unreliable. The destruction of the Spike begins this era, for the explosion rocked the world to its foundations and determined the final struggles of many gods.
Gods of Terror in this age included Kajabor and Wakboth as leaders. The Unholy Trio continued their rampage, so that the names of Ragnaglar, Thed, and Mallia became synonymous with fear.
Resisters still held out. Where there was a fight there would be help, meager though it might be. The destruction of the world and its people left less and less for the gods and monsters to prey on, and they hungrily turned on each other.
The tattered remains of the world seemed to have no chance for unified action against the forces of chaos. They were isolated by unbridgeable gaps. There was a unity between them in their wish for survival, and this unquenchable desire brought individuals across time and space, order and chaos to confront the final dissolution of the world. It did not matter from whence they were drawn or where it occurred. They fought their last desperate fight against overwhelming odds, motivated by their survival and determined to do their utmost.
In this way they combined forces and unconsciously aided each other against their own fears. They were alone, yet found themselves with others like themselves and gained strength. This is called the battle of I Fought We Won, said to be responsible for the preservation of the world. Kajabor was killd and the chaos forces dissipated and weakened.
Heroes appeared among the people, and taught survival and compassion. Slowly the world knitted into place. The survivors rebuilt, strong in their new-found hope.
Orlanth always was a leader among the gods of storm. Like the rest he was wild and unruly, powerful and violent. But each god grew differently in the Gods Age, and Orlanth is one who changed and held his own.
When Orlanth realized the doom of the world, he determined to seize his responsibility for its destruction and forge a new means of righting the wrong. He cast aside his old bonds and sought new ones, voluntarily dooming himself for the good of the world.
Orlanth had been a chieftain king among the storm gods, and the Lightbringers were his councilors. Once they had agreed to accompany Orlanth on his quest to Hell, each was pushed to the edge of his knowledge and endurance, and beyond into unknown challenges. They trod unlivable plains, forded rivers of acid and hatred, met their worst foes, their deadliest nightmares, and faced their own doomed selves who tried to bar the way before them. They worked, fought, and suffered mightily for their labors, all of them losing parts of themselves forever. Yet they succeeded, and they entered live into the lands of the dead, and found their way to the King of the Dead.
In Hell, then, Yelm the Emperor and Orlanth the King came to terms. Each swore great vows of truth and honor to bind themselves to the task. The goddess Arachne Solara laid greet schemes and plans between them, and they swore to those plans also, joined by the other gods in death who yearned to survive. They stood fast as chaos reached the land of the dead, to confront the empty powers of life for the last time.
Arachne Solara is the nickname of an otherwise unnamed deity who may be the goddess of Nature in Glorantha. Her origins are mysterious and subject to speculation, but there are strong indications that she is the ghost of Glorantha, the Mother of the Universe.
Arachne Solara first comes to notice in the tale of the Great Compromise, wherein Orlanth, Yelm, and the other deities in the underworld swear pacts and oaths to preserve themselves. The plan upon which they agreed is said to have bean created by Arachne Solara, based upon mutual support between all of the remaining world.
The goddess constructed a great and magical web made of many things no longer found in the world, and then she gave the web to all of the gods to hold ready between them. When chaos entered into their realm, the gods cast the net upon Kajabor and held him tight while the goddess leapt upon him with vengeance and a strength of desperation and mystical splendor. She enwrapped the chaos god in her legs and struggled mightily, and at last devoured him alive.
Then the goddess carefully collected her net and used it to conceal the birth of her child. The child is the Pledge of the Gods, and all existence swore by it to uphold their agreements. This is also called the Great Compromise or the Immortal Pact, and it is the oath which recreated the world.
Yelm and Orlanth and the other deities prepared to leave their home of death. There was still a struggle for them, for they were held in the underworld against their will, and even the victory of Arachne Solara did not bind the Holders of Hell. But nothing could hope to stand against the liberated forces of Light and Life, and so they surged on into victory and beyond.
The reborn gods reached the edge of the world at the place now called Dawngate. There a star waited for them, and even the Darkness was glad to see them. The flush of Dawn, the rosy goddess, came. Arachne Solara stood upon the Gate of Time and cast her net across the universe, catching each surviving thing and binding it into the new world. Her child was born then, concealed by the net and protected by the strands. The child was called Time. The gods marched across the barren world, bringing warmth, light, and flower to awed survivors.
The new world was created. Time reigned. History began.
History in Glorantha is the sum of events occurring Since Time began. Mythical events prior to Time were non-sequential and simultaneous actions happening without the benefit of orderly lineal time.
But that is a tale for another moment.