I've been thinking about ideology in Glorantha. I don't mean our ideology, from our world, of course, but rather what sorts of ideologies might exist in a world such as this, and what would be the main factions, as well as what positions one might hold as important. We get clues from this every now and then, but I can't remember them all. So it goes something like this:
Dwarfs - Probably the most straightforward. The Mostali are either Orthodox or Heretics, with Heretics being against the status quo either in a radically individualistic or open bent (Individualism and Openhandism) or in an extreme reactionary bent (Octamonism). Thus the main issues relating to a Mostali are: do you support the status quo? What should be our relationship to the outside world? Do you have a stance on the Iron dwarfs?
In terms of goals, however, they all have the same one: restore the Machine God. That is in itself an ideology, though, because every one of these heresies are just different ways of restoring the Machine God.
Elfs - I honestly don't know a lot about the Aldryami, but I'd imagine that their major split would probably be on the grounds of Reforestation, what that entails, and to what degree that should go, with extreme reforestators saying the Aldryami should cover the entire world in trees, while more moderate types would be ok with just islands of forest in other biomes, like Prax. Plus the question of old grudges and whether they should let go or keep it up.
Trolls - The Uz seem to have the most cogent, almost disciplined and direct ideology of anyone, because they're basically fine with very little. As a species, they have basically one issue: their fertility goddess Korasting is dead and the children are being born weird now. Their stance on Chaos naturally stems from this, since it was Gbaji who did it. There's not a lot to divide the trolls; "should they contact this tribe or not" is an entirely practical matter, and there's just not enough people in your average troll clan to provide dissent, especially if there's an Uzuz nearby.
I can see a faction forming, however, of Lunar-sided Trolls, who learned about how another deity, Sedenya, was brought back by ritual, so maybe they're investigating the matter and perhaps even reaching Illumination and letting go of past grudges?
Lunar Empire - The main matter in Lunar lands is probably one of chaos. Aside from the "are you loyal or not" question, I imagine there are also pretenders or people who believe the Empire has gone too far away from their Carmanian origins and want to go back to that "golden age", when the women and barbarians knew their place. On the opposite end you have the White Moonies, who believe the Empire was never meant to have been created and the Empire must fizzle out.
Orlanthi - The main matter with the Orlanthi is the Lunar Empire, but there's a bit more nuance there, because there are factions whose actions may look identical, but their motivations may be different. For instance, the Rebels aren't really unified, their single goal is to remove Lunar occupation, but I imagine there are those who fight to restore the Prince of Sartar exactly as it was before and keep the Orlanthi conservative, but there must also be those who reject Lunar occupation but think Orlanthi society needs to embody the spirit of Movement from Orlanth and be shaken up, perhaps to learn something from the Lunars.
From those who support the Lunar Empire, and therefore reject the anti-Chaos Orlanthi ideology, there must also be White Moonies between them. And there's the Fazzurites and Phargenteites, which to me indicate different degrees of pro-Lunar fervour. Fazzur, for everything he's done, did save the citizens of Boldhome, and always gave me the vibe of "goddamn you rebels keep forcing my hand, I like this just as much as you do!", while Phargentes always struck me more as a power hungry guy with the spears to back it up.
I don't know enough about Prax, Pavis, and the Holy Country to talk about them tbh, but what do you think? Are there or should there be some other factions? What else would someone in Glorantha believe is an important issue that should be addressed?