So, the Jerontian Way is associated with "Balance". The Pelandans
clearly do not associated their "Balance" with a moon, nor do the Lunars
themselves consider Jerontian Balance to be part of Sedenya. Yet balance
is associated with the Moon rune.
Peter Metcalfe and I consider the possibility of a Balance rune that is
distinct from the Moon rune. To recap, the reasons for this are as follows.
- The Lunars use syncretic. Consider the Moon Bear, for example. If
Balance were part of Moon, and thus part of Sedenya, the Lunars would
surely have identified this, and co-opted the Jerontian Way into the
Lunar religion.
- Sedenya Herself makes no identification with the Jerontian Way. Her
mask as Natha is clearly peripheral, and even somewhat opposed, to the
Jerontian Way. Teelo Imara explicitly denies Valare Addi's
identification of Sedenya with the Jerontian goddess Entekos.
- Pelandan mythology includes the Moon, as least as a celestial body
that cycles through phases, yet it never connects the Moon with any
deity of the Jerontian Way.
However, we have several sources that either equate the Moon rune with
Balance, or indicate that Balance is part of Moon, as follows.
- Natha seems to be identified by both Pelandans and Lunars as "The
Balancer".
- The Lunar calendar includes a Month of Balance.
- Natha's "Balancer" rune in ILH-2 is clearly derived from the Moon rune.
- The Moon rune has sometimes instead been called the Balance rune. HQ1
page 265 equates Moon with Balance.
I suggest we can resolve these inconsistencies as follows.
- Natha is not the goddess of the Balance aspect of the Moon. She is the
goddess of the Moon that also has Balance. Natha having Balance does not
make Balance part of the Moon rune, in the same way that the motherhood
of Lesilla does not make Motherhood (part of the Life rune) part of the
Moon rune.
- Natha's "Balancer" rune is accurately termed "Moon Balancer".
- The Lunar Month of Balance is named for Natha, and is no more
significant than that.
- The Balance rune is half black and half white. Combined with the Moon
rune it gives Natha's "Moon Balancer" rune. Combined with the Law rune
it gives the Carmanos rune.
- References to the Moon rune as being the Balance rune are due to
confusion. In the Lunar era, the confusion is due to Natha being the
pre-eminent mask of the Moon. In the Imperial Age, the confusion is due
to God Learner ignorance of moon and balance, neither of which were
important in their regions of influence. Note the rarity of equations of
Moon with Balance that are not equations of Natha with Balance.
- To the Lunars, Natha is important as the embodiment of Balance. To the
Pelandans she is NOT important for embodying Balance, which Jerontius
provides. She instead embodies something else, such as Death, vengeance
(following ILH-2), destruction, Disorder (as suggested by Kevin
McDonald), revolution or autonomy as part of Balance. References in The
Entekosiad to Natha as "The Balancer" are interpolations by Lunars (only
Valare Addi connects JagaNatha with Balance), non Pelandan myths (for
example, the Red King story), or refer to the particular means of
achieving balance that Natha uses (in the story of BeThaNa).