This is my take on the Aeolian Church of Heortland. Currently available is the Mythos and History section, as of 1619 ST. This means there are lots of influences from previous ages' heroquesting. This is intended to be a subjective truth of the Aeolian Church, pressed into the format inherited from the God Learners. Differences to David Hall's version (which was written for the freeform How the West Was One) are quite intentional; this version was written for RuneQuest 3 and the sadly demised RQ4 AiG project. The history presented here is not necessarily how everything happened, but how the church claims things happened.
Essentially I have changed little (yet) since I posted this first to the RuneQuest Digest in summer 1994. An adaption to Sandy Petersen's revised sorcery system is on my to-do list.
Glorantha was created when Creator formed Grower and Maker. From both sprang the Spirit pervading the world, Glorantha.
Grower and Maker obeyed the Runes Creator had devised, and the out of their actions formed the first of elements, Darkness, from which flowed Water, inside which grew Earth, above which lay Sky. Between these two Air sprang, the last and most sophisticated of Elements.
As Creator had seen fit, each element held Stewardship of the world, until the next element came into being and took over. Thus Nakala ruled through her tripel offspring Subere, Himile and Dehore, Zaramaka through his tripel offspring Daliath, Framanthe and Sramak, Gata through the other three corners of the Earth Rune , Earth Witch and Genert, Aether through his three sons Dayzatar, Yelm and Lodril.
Of these last three Yelm strove for supremacy, and took upon himself the title of the Emperor. When from the union of Sky and Earth sprang Umath, the Primal Storm, Sky's time of Stewardship had gone, and Air was to take over. Dayzatar withdrew even further, and practical-minded Lodril turned to his work. But vain Yelm refused to pass the stewardship to his brother. Thus strife entered the world, and the harmony of the court was broken.
Umath too fathered Sons through whom he meant to rule, but Yelm denied the Storm brothers their role in Stewardship. The brothers reacted each after his temper. Kolat populated the air with his children, Storm Bull wedded Eiritha and befriended her family, the Earth family, Humakt strove for mastery in the powers.
Vadrus gathered the Children of Umaths Sons around him, unsatisfied with the suppression through the Celestial Court, while Umath held back the forces that threatened Creation, now that Creator's plan was disturbed. The Vadrudi sought women of their own, and they took what they found with force, because they hadn't got their inheritance without it.
Aerlit was a Kolati in the host of Vadrus the Woman-Taker, and when raging and searching with his brethren Kolati, he came upon a sea-nymph basking in Yelm's light on the shore. Instead of taking her by force, as was the wont of the Vadrudi, he fell in love with her grace and courted her. Their courtship was neither hard nor long, for Warera was pleased by the advances of the Storm god. Aerlit carried her into his airy realm, and together they flew to an island in the west. Forgotten were his brethren and their quest for wives, as Aerlit and Warera gazed into each other's faces. They made themselves a home, and the fruit of their love, a boy which became known as Malkion arrived at the proper time.
But alas their luck should not last. Vadrus and his host fell upon the peaceful island to rape and to pillage. When Vadrus found the young couple, he bellowed in rage, for had not Aerlit betrayed his host and deserted them? Aerlit valiantly stepped between his former chieftain and his young wife, although he knew he would not stand a chance. Right he was, for Vadrus in his rage tore him apart, before he fell upon the unlucky daughter of Wartain's tribe. Luckily young their infant son had wandered off, and was not present when his parents fell under Vadrus' blows. After Vadrus had vented his anger, he gathered his host and moved on. The child was left on his own, without anybody knowing of his existence.
Although only a baby alone in a hostile world, the boy had inherited his parents' powers, and he made it into the Kingdom of Logic, where he learned of Creator and his laws.
The child's advent to the Kingdom of Logic was memorable: In a basket spanned with hide, and with a sail hanging from a broomstick he was carried by friendly waves, relatives of his mother, and driven by gentle winds, of his Grandfather's tribe.
The people of the Kingdom of Logic adopted the boy, and took his education upon themselves. They lived in a region that was designed by the Creator to reflect all of creation. There exist few such regions in Glorantha, all of which are special to the Creator. The people of the Kingdom of Logic were the result of the Creator's use of the Man Rune, a people that did not know mortality, for death had not yet entered the world. They didn't worship the gods, either, but acknowledged them as representatives of single elements the same way they were of all the elements, the synthesis of Creation. They called the child Malkion, and taught him their ways they had learned from the Creator, when he had visited the world and created them.
The child grew up in the Kingdom of Logic, and although it learned the ways of Logic, it still felt attracted to the pure elements. Thus he chose his wives from the elements. Form the first of his wives three sons were born, and to each of them he gave one third of his powers: Talar inherited his mastery, Zzabur his magic, and Horal his prowess in the arts of conflict. Each of them took a wife among the people of Logic, and their descendants each clung to the profession their ancestor was given by Malkion.
Later Malkion undertook the Great Marriage with the land, and from this union sprang Dronal, the provider.
When Malkion returned to his mother's element, he met a maiden from the Ludoch merfolk, and from their love sprang Waertag, ancestor and founder of the people living in the shells of conquered sea-dragons, in cities built among their living spikes.
The two peoples grew in friendship, and although the descendants of Waertag stuck with their worship of ancestral water deities and only superficially accepted the Logic of their purebread human allies.
The Kingdom of Logic thrived, and Malkion received the Blessing of Communication with the Invisible God through his Spirit. Malkion spread his enlightenment, and the people of the Kingdom of Logic, many of them his descendants, accepted the new creed, which helped them deal with the consequences of the struggle in the world.
There, not only the Vadrudi were raging about the denial of their inheritance. One other son of Umath, Ragnaglar, who had suffered most heavily from the machinations of the Imperial Court, had met Rashoran, the Last God, and learned his secret. Together with his wife Thed and his mistress Malia he plotted to overthrow the self-styled Emperor of the World.
With Creation gone askew, Umath received an inspiration from the Creator and fathered Orlanth to Kero Fin, Mountain Lady of the Nesting Ground of Dragons. Through this union, Creation was to be restored, but only through epic struggle.
Orlanth was Creator born to the world, and through him the Invisible God perfected his plans.
Young Orlanth went to the appointed steward of the world, and found that his uncle didn't occupy the steps before the throne, as befitted his station, but had in his now legendary infatuation with his own splendour taken place on the seat of the King of Gods. Rather than accuse his relative of treachery, Orlanth resolved himself to shame him in a contest.
How surprising came the insight that not only his uncle, but all the court had gone astray, when they as referees didn't acknowledge the power of creation (Mobility), because they feared for their station, and rather awarded Stasis, the way they knew! Still, Orlanth didn't want to dishonour family, and the contests became fiercer, until in the contest of weapons Orlanth taught Yelm the meaning of Stasis: Death.
Orlanth then appointed Elmal, his cousin and son-in-law, to take over Stewardship, and his loyal thane didn't betray him. The Sun, however, shone weaker ever after.
Orlanth finally found that treachery can be found among siblings, and that it can become necessary to dishonour family, when Ragnaglar didn't succumb to his judgement as Law-giver, and continued his schemes to attain rulership of the world. Finally Orlanth had to close him out of Creation, for he would not again kill family, for reason ever.
And Orlanth found that dealing Death is dealing Stasis, and thereby working against creation, so that to heal the world beset by chaos he had to right this wrong. Orlanth renounced his tie to death, handing it over to Humakt his brother, and set out to bring Yelm back into life, and motion, thereby to restore Creation as it should be.
While Orlanth collected his companions to save creation, and Ragnaglar led the hordes of the void on their rampage of destruction, the Kingdom of Logic was beset by a wall of ice which threatened to devour all of the realm. Malkion led his people into a new land, calling his youngest son's people to help them cross the sea. He founded the city of Malkonwal and set all out for his people before he finally departed to search for his parents. While he left human history, his teachings lived on through his children.
Orlanth had fought the first Battle of Chaos and learned about the destructive powers of the howling void, brought into the world by Ragnaglar, and he realized that creation could only be set into the right path again by starting it anew. Together with a group of companions, who somehow experienced the same motivation he set out and sought to redeem his slaying of his uncle, thereby gathering all forces of the world to withstand the outer enemy. Soon in his Quest he achieved he summons of the Spirit, which revealed itself as Ginna Jar, and accompagnied the King of Gods.
In an epic journey we know as the Lightbringers' Quest Orlanth and his companions brought Yelm back into life, and through the creation of time from the Spirit and the forces of the void, he opened the way for a renewal of creation.
So when Orlanth collected the gods into the compromise he gifted Yelm with motion, but no control over it. Of all the deities, Yelm was tied most closely to Time, which inherited the powers of Stasis. An official ieffectively leading other officials, Yelm and his court were reinstalled, to amuse Orlanth when he grew tired of his usual buffoon, Eurmal.
Elmal taught his relative Yelm the virtues of Stewardship when he stepped back from driving in the Sun Chariot and returned to spread his light from Grandfather Aether's Sky Dome.
The world had fared less successful. Chaos had finally invaded the Spike, the center of Law in the world, and made it explode. All life was hard set on by the hordes of Chaos, and only the last heroes' single stand in the battle known as I Fought We Won kept it from falling apart. Only when Orlanth returned with all the divine Saints, led by the Spirit which now was called Arachne Solara, returned into the world, to refashion it, but then to keep to their own domains.
The Beginning of Time is generally reckoned by counting the years from the Dawn.
Already before this reckoning started, the peoples of the world started to recover from the Chaos wars, as the heroes returned from I Fought We Won.
Heort Law-giver was the hero who brought his people back into the land of Orlanth's birth. Although he did not know about the Creator, he reinstalled Creation's course by proclaiming and enforcing the Laws of Orlanth.
The Southern part of Kerofinela became part of the new reflection of Creation. The land of Ketha was ruled by the Only Old one, a distant relative of Orlanth both through his maternal side, which came from the Earth, and from his paternal side, which stemmed from Sky (and Darkness). He organized the land after the fashion of the old Kingdom of Logic, without realizing it, and assigned each of the Elements as well as the humans who don't worship the elements their place in the new order. The Land of King Heort represented the Air, most noble of the elements, and Heort himself acted as the Law-speaker of the new alliance. Even the Dragons' breed and the adherents of the primal principles of Grower and Maker, Aldryami and Mostali, participated in the new council. For a while, the renewed Stewardship of Darkness proved its worth. But then the Mostali initiated unrest, and the council began to crumble apart.
[The following section will be subject to a rewrite soonish, since I learned a lot more about early Malkionism since:]
The people of Malkion experienced the Dawn only after an age of troubles. The Rules of Malkion, which had kept their existance before Time's birth, suddenly failed to care for their need of Solace. Only after a full turn of the cycle the Invisible God revealed himself again through the Spirit, this time to the Talar Hrestol.
But when Hrestol preached his relevation, part of the people of Malkion dissented, led by Zzabur, the second son of the prophet. Zzabur held that if the people remained outside time, by denying to reproduce, they could remain in the state of the Kingdom of Logic. He took most of his followers with him to Brithos, and after this homeland they are called Brithini. They deny themselves Life, Change and Solace.
Prince Hrestol instead propagated new freedom. While he didn't destroy the classes the Invisible God had reawakened in Malkion, he modified them, and he introduced the concept of Chivalry. His new Creed took over the ancient colonies in Seshnela and Akem, and only in Arolanit the old way of the five was held up.
The Waertagi sided erroneously with the half-brother of their ancestor, and they kept the humans from braving the sea, except where they were aided by friendly merpeople, as was the case in Kethaela.
In Kerofinela the peoples lived the Compromise of the Lightbringer, and they spread word of it over the world. They offered friendship and peace, but when they met the horsepeople of Peloria, they were met with hatred and violence. The Council countered the offenses with their combined might, and they drove the horsepeople back into the cold plains of Pent, once part of Genert's Garden, and liberated their subjects, the farmers of the plain and the city-dwellers of the Oslir River Valley. Butt these had been exposed to the hybris of the Sun as well as their former overlords, and soon they fought the Lightbringers' Council which had liberated them.
The Council decided to teach them the superiority of the Compromise by giving them an example, and they began to invoke the Spirit to give them perfect leadership. This was too perfect for the creatures of darkness and breed of the dragons, an they pulled back their assistance. Thus also this council began to crumble.
Still, they tried to meet the aberrant followers of Yelm's shadow of a court, and these seized the opportunity to corrupt the pure project with the hybris of the Sun. At first they cooperated, but when they had taken the lead they wouldn't give it out of their hands, and the project became flawed from within. Thus did they abuse the Lightbringer powers of Creation, and the perfect God only seemed that way.
At first the new bright deity was all the Lightbringers had intended, an example of the compromise. But the ichor of the Sun's imprisonment throbbed within, and when the Lightbringers revealed their lore of the compromise to the adherents of the Hrestoli way, the Solar hybris had robbed it of its meaning. The otehr side beae dominant, and by means of foul tricks the leaders of the new empire betrayed their innocent followers by bending and breaking the laws which the Compromise gave.
This abuse of Creation led to the reaction in the tragic figure of Arkat. This hero had grown up among the aberrant followers of Logic, and at firt he only realized that Creation was endangered. He didn't know why, but he set out to learn.
When he encountered the minions of the Deceiver, he knew his enemy, and he swore to unmake him. In this he erred, for Creation can not be undone without invoking the void, but then he did not see this, and swore a most terrible vow.
After his compatriots had ceased fighting the first abomination of the Deceiver, the evil Vampire kingdom, Arkat had discovered the Truth of Solace in the Invisible God, and studied the way of Hrestol. Armed with knowledge of the Creator and the revelations of the Spirit, he fought the abominations of the deceiver, and drove his minions before him.
Then he made contact with the Lightbringers that had not fallen prey to the empty promises of the deceiver, and he learned of the Lightbringer. Just when he began to experience the holy trinity of the Invisible God, he tracherously wassent into the land of the dead, and was tainted with darkness. When Harmast Barefoot undertook the second Lightbringers' Quest ever, he saved Arkat Humaktson from the darkness, and for a while bright Arkat swept the Deceiver's minions from the face of creation. In these last lucky days Arkat lay the foundations for our Aeolian creed, which his disciples held true.
But then the taint of darkness inside of Arkat became stronger with the unfulfilled, rash oath, and Arkat was ironically drawn away from the truth he himself had revealed. At first he betrayed the Lightbringers and joined the detructive way of Zorak Zoran and the trolls, and became one of them. Pity the ways of those who followed Arkat into darkness, and worship Black Arkat, but condemn them not, for their error is hard to find.
Some say that in the end Arkat's obsession became so overpowering that he betrayed the trolls, too, and released the void upon the Deceiver. He destroyed the deveiver and his stronghold, and returned in the guise of Black Arkat, but inside he was changed, burnt out by the powers he should not have called upon.
He appeased his last victims of betrayal by giving them the Stewardship over the remnants of the Deceiver's realm in the North. Here in Kethala he reinstalled the old hierarchy, but he remembered the time when he was lucky, and set the Hendriki who had learned his creed of Trinity as Rulers of Heortland. Alas, he himself could not participate, and at last he retreated to Ralios in the West and tried to impose a benevolent rule. Burnt out, he didn't last long, and tried to refind his Solace in the sky, where we still can watch him searching.
Without his leadership, the realm he created fell apart, and his secrets fell into the wrong hands. A group of Malkioni colonists on the middle Islands thought they had discovered the singularity of the Law. They didn't realise that deliberately follwoing Arkat's steps, they'd fall into the same trap, and create nothing but emptyness. So when they stole and lost the secrets of Dragontongue, the bewildered people who had approached the Dragons fell prey to their lure and put the draconic way which lies only partly inside ceation over the truths of solace.
Our Brethren in the west never made the insight to the Compromise when the God Learners taught them the wrong conclusions they had taken from the actions of the Gods, aand although they still strife for Solace, they have lost the Truth and the Law of Compromise.
The God Learners committed the worst crimes against the compromise by tricing the unenlightened into accepting new, mostly wrong, ways. Their most heinous abomination was trying to create the Machine God Zistor, an impossibe combination of Maker, the instrument of Creation, with Grower's force. For a while it seemed to work, but in this creation their errors revealed themselves first. When it captured the Good Wind, all of Kethaela had to suffer from the resulting blight. The Aeolian Church was among those who restorated the old alliance between the peoples of the Land, and together with their deities humans, trolls and dwarfs marched against the Clanking City. There Orlanth saved the world again by slaying Zistor and freeing the entrapped wind. The alliance had proven that the God Learners' ways were wrong, and an insult to creation, so Orlanth the King released is secret storms, such as the Windless Typhoon, to ravage the God Learners' holdings.
Distant Zzabur too experienced the unnaturality, and plotted to wipe out the ancient foes of his Allies, the Waertagi, by cutting them off their main routes, the seas. A great magic descended from Brithos and closed the sea to surface travel. Where the magic met land under the God Learners, the sea invaded the land, and a lot of valuable land became lost forever.
Also Heortland was hit by this catastrophe, and the island chain today known as Rightarm Islands was formed then from the hilltops of the former land.
After the God Learners had gone, only the Dragon-Friends remained a threat to Kethaela, but the Only Old One managed to keep them restrained to their own lands. Only Volsaxiland was held by them, but with the Closing access to the sea lost its importance, and was given back to the Hendriki. The empire suffered from internal decomposition, and finally the Dragons' Breed turned upon the humans acting in their name, and expurgated all the self-ordained leaders of that empire. When the Sun-people from the north came to take revenge for this, the Only Old One sent his troops to assist the offspring of the Dragons. Few returned, but they had helped to vanquish Solar hubris once again. In return for this service, the Dragons' Breed and their inhuman allies promised to close Dragon Pass, and hold the Sun people in check. Thus it happened.
Another upheaval occured when Belintar the Stranger was washed ashore in Kethaela. He challenged the Only Old One for the Stewardship. The Only Old One accepted the Challenge, and in several epic struggles Belintar finally won over the Only Old One, and succeeded him as the ruler of Kethaela.
Belintar was well aware of the special nature of the land and renamed it Holy Country. He was fair to all who had supported the Only Old One, and as Pharaoh he spread peace and prosperity. His time of Stewardship lasted until recently, when he fell prey to the evil machinations of the new hubris from the Land of the Solar worshippers, the minions of the Red Moon, and disappeared without reemerging soon, as was his wont before.