Greg Sez: Q&A

You ask, I answer. Q&A is a Question and Answer opportunity for Glorantha fans to ask questions directly to Greg Stafford, the creator of Glorantha. He will arbitrarily choose one submitted question each month and answer it.

Caveat: I am going to use many inappropriate terms herein, like species or maybe even gravity, both of which are concepts essentially outside of Gloranthan consciousness. These inappropriate vocabulary usages here should not imply that use of these concepts occurs within Glorantha.

Greg Sez is an ongoing column of material made available by Greg Stafford, creator of Glorantha. Other columns of Greg Sez include:

Myth of the Month- A new myth or legend of Glorantha, replaced monthly.
Library of Londarios - technical and miscellaneous essays and background from Greg.
Previously Asked Questions - A table of contents of old queries.

Click here to email a question for consideration in a future column.

HOW POWERFUL IS THE RED EMPEROR?

Question From MARTIN LAURIE. Answer copyright 1998 Greg Stafford. This page may be freely linked to, and one copy may be printed for personal use, but any other reproduction by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited.

Q: You've said that Emperor Yelmgatha "was recognized as an avatar of Yelm" and "He was called the Five/Sixths because he had within him five of the six parts of Yelm." (FS, p 76) So is the Emperor part of a God? How powerful is he? How debilitating is his decadence?

A: The Red Emperor is not a human. He is a minor deity in his own right, obtaining potency from several sources, and much more powerful than any human being, even most heroes.

First, he is the Emperor of Dara Happa, and the Emperor always includes a part of Yelm within his personal being. The Ten Tests are infallible to prove that at least one part of the candidate for Emperor is simultaneously a portion of Yelm. Most often it is the Virimakus (the immortal Spirit) part, but sometimes it contains other parts as well. The Dara Happans rate the 77 Emperors and quantify which portions of Yelm each had.

The Red Emperor, Takenegi, has proved that he shares in the Great Eagle soul of Yelm. This gives him tremendous spiritual energy to perform multiple tasks, and access to some great magical powers.

He can simultaneously occupy several discreet bodies, is protected by hundreds of defensive magics and dozens of spirits, and is in mental command with thousands of people, the weakest of whom he can simply take over at will. His consciousness can reach out hundreds of miles to investigate oddities or curiosities.

Takenegi's apparent decadence is a manifestation of his public mask, put on to divert his nobles, mislead his enemies, and entertain himself. It affects only a portion of his total self. He can not get Yelm's spirit drunk, nor divert his Kazkurtum with sexual shenanigans.