> I have a question regarding the Storm Bull I hope one of you
> mythology-people can clear up for me.
I am not exactly one of the high-powered mythological types you could find around here, (I'm a CS major who has read 'The Jade Steps', I don't own every RQ supplement ever published :) but I'll take a shot.
> Storm Bull fought the Devil and was almost defeated when his wife Eiritha
> lend him her power. I have always thought this was represented by his
> gaining the spell Earth Power, but there is obviously something wrong with
> my reasoning here as he gets it from Ernalda. Also, if Eiritha lend him her
> power, why is the land blasted if she is a Godess of Heard Beasts? I know
> she is the daughter of Ernalda and may have some connection to the earth,
> still I'm confused.
Think of Ernalda and Eiritha as having been at one point essentially the same goddess. Ernalda has in her sphere many domestic beasts (eg. pigs). I see Eiritha having the same powers; but in the course of rescuing her husband, she is seriously injured by the Devil, and loses the power of her 'lands'. But she still has power over beasts (not involved directly in the fight). In recovering, she learns to compensate, like a suddenly blinded man who learns to navigate solely by touch and sound. The beasts of her domain are stronger, more capable. The earth is the wellspring of gloranthan life.
So what we end up with is an area that centers around this 'mythical' final confrontation, where the lands are poor and generally blasted in appearance, but the herd beasts are powerful and the ecosystem as a whole is still capable of sustaining life.
Eiritha cannot give the spell, since Eiritha is very weak in the lands; but Ernalda will give the spell to the Bull (wherever the Bull is an acceptable husband for Ernalda, as he was to Eiritha) because she fits the same general mythic frame, and still has strong earthly powers.
(This strong-in-beasts weak-in-earth relationship makes me think perhaps there are some very big snakes out there in the wastes :)
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