> To make matters worse, I am not personally convinced that the
> trollish brain is susceptible to Illumination at all.
Mistress Race Trolls, maybe, but even then I doubt it.
The Secret of the Light Within is a Xiola Umbar story about Rashoran that hints that Xiola Umbar might herself be illuminated.
Gbaji tricked his way into the body of Korasting, so there is no reason why he couldn't have tricked his way into the mind of trolls. After all, trolls traditionally have little defence against light. Argan Argar and Zorak Zoran do, as they both conquered deities of Light and Fire, which is interesting as they were the other participants of the Secret of the Light Within.
> For trolls, I think that "Mystical Insight" comes from Darkness.
> Subere is their goddess of "the unknowable" and "secrets mortals
> cannot comprehend." For trolls, the great transcendent mystery is
> the darkness untouched by light, from which everything that is,
> was or could yet become, emerges. Heat and Light are just enemy
> powers, not sources of secret wisdom.
Subere is the goddess of Unconquered Darkness, of the terrors that live in the dark and of the powers that can come from darkness. However, I am not sure if she is a focus of mystics, she might be but my guess is that she is a conduit or way of reaching the darkness behind her, much as Simon says.
Simon Hibbs:
> Good stuff, though I think the unknowable primal goddess of the
> darkness before all and from whom all proceeds, Nakala, is most
> likely the focus of mystical contemplation. The fact that Nakala
> doesn't appear to have an active cult is if anything confirmation
> that 'she' (actualy I think we should say 'it') is a mystical being
> beyond worship through the normal animist, theist or sorcerous
> means.
I would agree. Nakala is the First Darkness, Primal Darkness, Darkness behind Darkness, or the Darkness Within. As with all of the Celestial Court, she is more than simply elemental darkness, she is True Darkness.
Xentha is normally overlooked, but she is the Darkness Above, the Dark Sky. We now think of her as the Night Sky, which isn't that scary, but she blacked out most of the Sky and conquered it with darkness. I am sure that there are troll mystics who try to understand/experience/feel what that means.
boztakang:
> Heat is the weaker enemy, as it can be controlled and made use of.
> It is dangerous and unpleasant, but not completely alien (though
> those that make use of it are strange and not to be trusted.) I
> think trolls view heat much the way humans view darkness - scary
> and bad, but sometimes useful. I don't think that trolls associate
> heat with any of the attributes that we would normally associate
> with Illumination - it is not transcendent or mystical, nor does it
> allow you to ignore cult restrictions, or fundamentally change
> your understanding of the universe. It's just unpleasantly not-cold.
I think that most trolls treat Heat and Fire as enemy powers. Only Zorak Zoran, Argan Argar and Cragspider control these powers, so they are forbidden to others. Even Gadblad the Smith normally forges weapons cold and only occasionally uses heat.
> Light, on the other hand is the great destructive harbinger of
> evil, dissolution, pain, and horror. Destroyer of Wonderhome,
> Defiler of Blessed Korasting. Light is always bad, wrong, and
> hurtful. Nothing good can come of it. Illumination is just an
> obvious and inevitable chaotic side-effect of enlightenment. A
> madness that afflicts those lesser races who were not fortunate
> enough to be born of the Great Kyger Litor.
Light is so dangerous precisely because trollkind can be harmed by it. If they were immune to Illumination, they wouldn't be too concerned about it. Trolls treat Gbaji as Enemy Number One, mainly because he caused the Curse of Kin, but also because they know that he can slip inside them and change them.
Simon
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