Spoilers, obviously. If you want to wait until the game comes out on your medium of choice to play it, you should probably stay away from this thread until then.
I'm still essentially a Glorantha neophyte, so I don't really know how much of where the Six Ages lore adds to or contradicts/changes any of the stuff that is already known about the setting, something I'm nonetheless very interested in and would like to know what people more well-versed in this stuff (or who just have a cool idea) take away from the lore and mythology of the game. Since not everyone has had a chance to get it yet (I know a lot of people are waiting until it comes out for their medium of choice), so I thought that, as someone who does have the game and has played the crap out of it, I might make myself useful.
To start with, I'd like to talk about the chief god of the Hyalorings and my personal favorite ever since I first played King of Dragon Pass, Elmal. As their chief god, they have a lot more legends and sayings and such about him than the Orlanthi later will in Dragon's Pass, so I think it'd be cool to talk about, starting with his Heroquest (or rather, "Ritual"), "Elmal Guards the Sunpath.
QuoteElmal stood guard at his post in Nivorah, far from the Solar Court, when the Emperor was killed. Had he been there, he could have interposed himself between Yelm and the Rebel, taking the blow meant for his father.
But he was not and so the sun fell from the sky and darkness seized the world.
Like people everywhere, those of the Golden City panicked and thought existence had come to an end. It was Elmal’s duty to guard them, but in this case, he could do that best by leaving them, taking action, and returning when he had rescued his father. Because Death was still new in the world, the gods did not yet understand its permanence.
So Elmal spun into the sky onto the path his father proceeded upon each day, granting his glory and warmth to all. He found that its light might still be rekindled.
Upon this path pretenders prowled. They tore up the golden paving stones, stuffing them in sacks, devouring them, seeking to usurp not only Yelm’s throne but his rune of power.
First Elmal encountered his younger brother Little Yelm gathering up the stones. Little Yelm said, “I suppose you think you’re the sun now.”
“I am not the sun,” Elmal replied.
Shame overwhelmed Little Yelm and he stopped gathering the golden stones. So, the two of them did not have to fight.
Next loomed the Demon Sun. He did want to fight, and said, “You think you’re the sun, Elmal?”
“I am not the sun,” Elmal replied. “And neither are you.”
The Demon Sun attacked Elmal with his implacable mace. Emlal withstood him with his fiery shield, crying out, “The sun is not red. Hell gives off no warmth. A force shines from you, Shargash, but it is not the light that gives life.” For a quick eternity they clashed. In the end, neither god slew the other, and the Demon Sun withdrew to hang over his green-walled city, Alkoth.
During the prolonged duel various Small Suns, like the Ghost Sun and the Eggshell Sun, managed to sneak away a number of golden paving stones. After Elmal recovered from his injuries he battled a few of them. But they were many and while the retrieved the bricks from one, another would sneak in to steal more. All of them asked him if he thought he was the sun. And to all he said he was not, that one day he would find a way to rescue his father from hell.
Finally, the Cold Sun interposed himself upon the sunpath. It radiated a dim frigidity, strengthening the ice crushing Yelm’s domain. When the Cold Sun saw Elmal, he laughed, “You’re supposed to be the sun?”
“I am not the sun,” said Elmal, and he leapt at the Cold Sun, spear outthrust.
They battled for a long time, reaching only a standstill. The Cold Sun withdrew, but Elmal knew it would gather strength and return.
Elmal patrolled the part of the sunpath he had freed from incursion by the false suns small and large. Every day he went up and down the length of this portion, expanding it southward a little at a time. A mantle of heat grew around him, not as strong as Yelm’s, but enough to preserve the land below.
Finally, he went to Nivorah and told his people it was time to go. The Riders heard him faster than the Wheels, who were deafened by the sounds of their cumbersome carts.
As we readied for exodus, the Cold Sun came a second time.
He blasted Elmal with frost, with ice, with hail. “My name is Yonesh,” he said, “and I am the sun.”
“You are not,” said Elmal, “because you are riddled with storm runes. You will pollute whatever part of the great sky road you touch.”
To save the sunpath, Elmal saw the terrible sacrifice he would have to make. He would have to destroy part of it, further damaging the city below. So, he broke a hole in the path, over Nivorah. The Cold Sun could claim what was once the Golden City, but a line of warmth and brightness remained to the south, for the Riders to follow.
Yonesh rushed to leap across the breach. To keep him back, Elmal girded himself for one mighty blow, to knock him senseless.
As it landed, he said what he needed to be said to power his strike.
“I am the sun!”
Little Yelm is probably Yelmalio prior to losing his Fire (there's more evidence of this elsewhere, especially in "Nyalda's Bride Price"), and JonL suggested in the "Elmal Yelmalio thing" thread that Yonesh is Yavor, the warrior of the Fire Tribe who snuffed himself out to survive a battle with Umath (and made lightning darts from Umath's brains after he was killed), was torn apart by Orlanth so his bones could be made into weapons, and whose head was kept by him.
I think the interesting thing here is that Elmal is depicted as an archetypal "Reluctant King," the good, virtuous man who dons the mantle of a ruler not because it is his birthright or the spoils of conquest, but because he must. It fits the Hyalorings, who take a very dim view of kings and kingship (to the extent that they don't have kings themselves) but nonetheless love Elmal as the king of gods. Elmal's kingship is justified by his reluctance, which is what sets him apart from the Pretender Suns who try to take the mantle of the sun out of greed and constantly try to equate Elmal with themselves by accusing him of believing he is the sun like they do.
Elmal has a lot more of a family among the Hyalorings (and presumably the Samnali, i.e. the "Wheels" to the Hyalorings' "Riders"). After the death of Yelm, he eventually earns the hand of Nyalda (i.e. Ernalda) in "Nyalda's Bride Price," because he offers what none of the other suitors are willing to offer her (Freedom) and proves his strength by beating said suitors into line. Nyalda here is a former concubine of Yelm, BTW.
Prior to Nyalda, though, Elmal is married to the goddess Nivorah, who is of course the goddess of the city of Nivorah that the Hyalorings and Samnali both come from. Presumably, that's who most of his children were mothered by. The named children who are probably Elmal's children with Nivorah include Osara (basically an Elmali version of Vinga), Verlaro, and Samnal. The one who is definitely Elmal's son with Nivorah is... Reladivus.
Yeah, in "Taming the River," it is outright stated that Reladivus (whom the Dara Happans now consider a son of Yelm) is the son of Elmal and Nivorah. How did they eventually confuse Yelm's grandson with his son? My guess is that the answer is found in "Hyalor Tablet-Maker":
QuoteWhen his first ambassador returned to him in shame, Manarlavus sent another. This one said that Manarlavus would curse the name of our god, which would never again be remembered.
“Our god is Elmal, and will always be Elmal,” Hyalor and Samnal said together. “And he will never be forgotten.”
I guess Manarlavus might actually have been as good as his word, at least as far as his subjects were concerned. And to fill the genealogical gap that removing Elmal as the emperor's son created, they simply replaced him with Reladivus.
Unless this is just more of that thing where Vinga is considered both an aspect of Orlanth and his daughter by people and neither of these is incorrect.