> It ocurred to me that (duh!) it's very mythically appropriate for Zorak
> Zoran to have fire. To the trolls, Yelm is Death, yes?
Yes, exactly -- ZZ's death role is, IMO too, definitely an aspect of his fire powers. To recall something Greg was pointing out on the semantics of Orlanth = Storm (rather than = the Storm God), Zorak Zoran *isn't* Death -- he's the Carrier of Death or User of Death or something, but not a Death (God). Yelm is still Death. Or, at least, the nasty, horrible, painful, terrible death.
By extension, too, Hoomakt would be regarded differently, too. "Death god? Wha? Oh, yer mean the sociopathic gloomy gothboys dat wear black. *Dey* don't worship death, dey're all powergaming hoomans or somethin'..." : )
> Yelm comes toHell = Death comes to the trolls. And trolls are firmly
> convinced that sunlight causes aging...
And everything else bad! Light and heat are the source of pain, aging, decay, death, unhappiness, and probably also of impotence, poorly brewed beer, and anything else that goes wrong. Anything the sun (or other light) touches, it ruins and despoils.
(Most of this is hoo-hah, and stressed in the BoDR:D article chiefly for MGF potential. "Wow, you're very attractive. It's too bad going up to the surface is going to *ruin your looks!* You'll be ugly, no one will want you as a husband, you know..." *Fun* hoo-hah.)
Which is, IMO/IMG, one of the reasons that uz don't put *chaos* as the "worst ever thing in the world" to the same degree that, say, Heortlings do. Most "bad" things in uz cosmology are Yelm's fault, the bastard. Chaos is annoying, but at least *it* didn't despoil their ancient homeland, etc. ad naseum. For every bad thing Chaos has done, the Windy Gods have probably tied it, and the Sunnyboys have probably tripled it.
> of events we know (Humakt got the sword Death, Zorak Zoran swiped the
> sword (with some help from Eurmal), Zorak Zoran wounds Yelmalio) would
> *not* be the version the trolls tell.
Nope -- and even the suggestion in TP that ZZ gets it with "help from the Great Imp" is suspect, maybe, since it seems influenced by the Humakt myth. ZZ's turning the weapon of the enemy against the enemy. There's a great myth in there to be explored!
> Subere's realm). But surely trolls know better--they know that Darkness
> is the source and home of *life*, not death. Death comes from the sky.
And Death is in the sky -- the Burning Prison where terrible uz go is the big fiery ball o' Yelmness in the sky during the day, where bad uzger go to be horrible tortured for eternity. For uz, Hell is *right there* in front of you, every day, painful and obvious. Ugh!
I mean, imagine the effect for Orlanthi if, say, instead of Yelm they looked up every day to Wakboth's butt, or something. Yuck.
>BTW... who did Zorak Zoran get fire from in the Yelmalio-free versions
>of the myths? Or is that a stupid question?
'Course not.
IMG, I don't think the uz really *distinguish* between all these fruity hooman sun gods. As far as they're concerned, one big stoopid fiery evil death god is the same as another. I would hazard that uz accounts of Name that Solar Entity are probably pretty confused, and misidentify them quite frequently.
I firmly and thankfully believe that the uz are the last bastion in Glorantha that don't both to distinguish between Elmal and Yelmalio. ; ) Same flavor, after all. Same squishy sound when yer whack one (uz leave a lasting impression, after all).
morganconrad wrote:
>BTW, ZZ is the sociopathic death worshipping cult that actually makes
>sense to me. Given the "new" Humakht, most of my PCs would rather
>hire a ZZ as a bodyguard.
Damn straight. Cheaper. Better looking. More cheerful. Less likely to
distract
yer with lengthy debates about whether or not they're allowed to break a
geas because of obscure cultural practices. ; )
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