>What moon would this be that the Emperor of Dara Happa could call down
>out of the sky?
The Elmexdros Rolls places a more realistic version of how the Moon was made to fall upon the City of Mernita (He shot it down with his Bow).
>It is a little hard to locate the exact location of Mernita
>because of the stylized maps in GRoY, but it was the northernmost city of
>Dara Happa, beyond Verapur (which was destroyed by the glacier), which
>would place it in what is now the White Sea.
Mernita is now Elz Ast, IMO. The Princes of the Ten Tests found the Cap of Mernita there after engaging in aggressive archaeology. Elz Ast was a troublesome little place and so Plentonius the Truthful slighted it in his work.
>It would also place it
>near the Blue Moon Plateau (and, of course, relatively near the Crater).
>If this moon were the Blue Moon (a chunk of which formed the Plateau) that
>would imply Sedenya=Annilla. However a godess named Annilha is listed
>as one of the assassins of Murharzarm, a more likely match.
I've a feeling that the Moon fragment that originally fell to earth and formed the Blue Moon Plateau was actually part of the Moon shot down by Elmexdros. The trolls who migrated there identified the Lunar fragments as being the remants of the teacher of Kyger Litor and in doing so, transmuted the raw Moon Element into a fragment of the Blue Moon.
Pam Carlson:
>One might consider that the DH's don't seem to have the military strength
>their population might warrant. But the DH's have always feared internal
>rebellion almost as much as outside invasion, so arming and training their
>vast numbers of peasants has never been a good choice for them.
A state can get ample military strength by training the urban citizenry and well off farmers without having to rely on the peasantry. Early Republican Rome and Sparta functioned well without proles or helots infesting their army, thank you very much. Besides Dara Happa is a pretty tough prize. The World Council took 100 years to overthrow the Horse Nomads and in the last twenty of those years, Dara Happa was wracked by Civil War. The other conquests of Dara Happa required an enormous amount of effort.
>Ah - now that's a problem. I picture the Lunars as a BIG threat to Solar
>society.
I really don't view the Lunar Way as being a threat to Dara Happa. After all, the Lunar Religion springs from similar roots as Dara Happa. The Old Nobles may feel as if they're under threat but the commoners (who are part of Dara Happa too!) see little need to complain. What is happening, IMO, is that the old social structure, as opposed to the religious observances are being eroded.
In the old days, the head of a cult was a noble who was descended from the God and felt to be an incarnation of the Gods divine powers. He was usually refered to as the Son of the God. All the lesser lords were felt to be incarnations of the God on Earth, IMO. Thus the Son of Anitirius, the Son of Yelm, or the Son of Shargash had a sound reason for controlling who became a lord in their cult.
Normally they'll only reward the posts to close clan members and hangerons thus given the Nobility powerful control over Dara Happa. The commoners are forced into inferior cults if they wish to achieve spiritual power and their afterlife prospects are grim.
Now comes the Lunar Way. They ressurect the shortlived Karvanyar Doctrines and preach that 'Every Man is a Sun' (ie Max Muellerite Extremism :-). Now the Lord looks to his God directly for spiritual power and not some earthly avatar. Spiritual Control of Dara Happa by the Nobility goes out the Window. Of course they've still got their rich estates to exploit^H^H^H^H^Hert a powerful influence on Dara Happan Affairs.
I said 'Lord' in the essay above because I view most of the High Initiates in Dara Happan society as being 'Rune Lords' to use a Godlearnerism. The Dara Happans do have Priests (Buserium) but their initiation requirements are tougher (cf Yelm the Elder) and they were more likely to be found around Yuthuppa in the Pre-Lunar Days. The Priests of the outlying territories and the Priestess of the Earth Cults (ie Non Buserium) are thought to be gross and impure in the traditional Dara Happan Nobles PoV.
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