> On 3/16/2013 7:49 AM, jorganos wrote:
> > Peter Metcalfe wrote:
>>> Chris calls Waha a Silver Age Hero. The problem is his recorded >>> deeds are too numerous for a mere Silver Age Hero. I'm not aware >>> of another Hero in the same period who invents an entire culture >>> by himself. >> I would name Ezkankekko and Heort/Ivarne as contemporary and Hrestol as almost contemporary, each with a portfolio of society-forming deeds that would be in the same range as Waha.
> Heort, Hrestol and Ezkankekko as cultural founders? I don't think so.
> They revived nations that were already developed in the Storm Age as
> opposed to Waha who is on the record as inventing practically
> everything. Also Waha is a two-rune deity whereas Heort and Ezkankekko are mere heroes.
"We invoke Heort, Hant, and Hara." The Heort/Hantrafal combo is at the heart of all theist worship of the Orlanthi. That's as radical a deviation from the demigod sacrificial practice of the Vingkotlings as is the covenant of the Eaters and the Eaten. Plus Heort separated the living from the death (which was done by Daka Fal rather than Waha on the Praxian side). Heort's battle at I Fought We Won is another crucial step, on par with Storm Bull being there when the Block crushed the Devil (come on, did big smelly older brother ever exhibit telekinetic ability at another occasion?). The Orlanthi compromise is built on the combination of I Fought We Won in the shattered remains of the world of the Living and the events in Yelm's shadow court in the Underworld. Waha merely picked up the cleaning duty after the Devil was crushed.
Ezkankekko gets one rune, Kimantor gets another. The Kitori culture is created without any Storm Age precedent (the race having just Kimantor as precedent), and you are overlooking his role in Esrolia and in creating the alliance of the Unity Battle and later the First Council.
Hrestol's Joy of the Heart reveals an entire new level of the Materialist Otherworld, and his invention of the "men of all castes" (formerly known as knights) revolutionizes the Malkioni caste system. Even Malkion and Zzabur just have one rune, so why should Hrestol have two?
Waha's journeys through Prax up to the Too Tall Battle are the equivalent of Ezkankekko's activities, or Belintar's. His loss to Pavis is quite similar to Belintar's triumph over Ezkankekko.
I think that Waha inherited a lot of feats from the Founders. The two most important feats - digging a canal and starting a sacrificial mode of sustenance is similar to what Belintar did (digging a canal and stopping a sacrificial mode of sustenance by inserting himself as recurring sacrifice). The Covenant of Eaters and Eaten isn't too different from other bloody modes of sustenance adopted during the Greater Darkness, a main difference is that the Praxians stuck to the practice after the Dawn - mainly because their lands didn't improve in the same way Kerofinela or Peloria did.
The dominant bull (the khan) and the lead cow (the queen) of a beast rider tribe (or the lesser versions leading a clan) are way older than Waha's reforms. The khan requirement to slay Chaos in the Devil's Marsh is new, but that's similar to the Lightbringers' Quest taking the role of the Orlanthi Sacred Time renewal of the world, and a homage to granddaddy Storm Bull.
Waha established the trails? I'm with Chris that he rediscovered remains of the Ronance trails that had been used by the herds in the Golden Age.
The most interesting thing Waha may have done is a bit controversial - Sandy Petersen once said he may not just just have dumbed down the eaten, he may also have uplifted the eaters to average human intelligence. If that is true, then the Golden Age beast riders were smart herd beasts with rather dull ground apes attending them from their backs.
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