Nick Brooke writes:
> OK, here's my latest version of events. This story begins after the
> expulsion/exodus of Malkion and the Malkioni from Brithos; one way or another,
> they have crossed the Raging Sea and settled in Seshneg.
And it is both pre-Hrestol and pre-GL. This is important because also according to Nick (another posting, perhaps Alex holds the petard ready in his file) the GLs were the ones who "invented" the Invisible God.
> "I Fought We Won"
>
> I'd say that while the world was fragmenting under the onslaught of Chaos in the
> Great Darkness, Malkion kept his people devoted to God the Creator alone. Their
> single-minded dedication gave him the strength to fight the "I Fought We Won"
> battle on behalf of the whole world, pulling everything back together. All the
> Malkioni experienced what their Prophet had gone through:
>
> At the moment the Universe fails, Malkion is absorbed into the Invisible God,
> and together they recreate the Universe and inspire its inhabitants.
Here's my problem. If the Invisible God was not understood as such before the GL's then how could this be true? I think it's far more likely that the original story went something like this [note that I follow with a variant]:
At the moment the Universe fails, the Creator Recreates it and its inhabitants, who are in a state of inspiration. Malkion is weary after an eternity of struggle in the Darkness, and is assumed into Solace as his reward, as are the faithful of Malkonwal [Notably, Malkion's son Zzzabur is not numbered among the faithful]. After the Recreation, the Creator returns to its previous state [either inaction, or a source of universal laws, take your pick].
VARIANT
Brithini/proto-GodLearner/HQ-language belief. The Creator never
acted again after creating the universe the first time. It was a
prime mover and nothing more. Occam's Razor insists that we discard
duplicate explanations for a single occurrence. Either Malkion or a
Divine force Recreated the Universe at the same time that Malkion left
the mortal sphere. The Razor insists that we simplify this mess, and
it reveals the following truth.
At the moment the Universe fails, Malkion, his heroic self reinforced by the worship of all the faithful Malkioni, apotheosizes, becoming the IG, and Recreates the Universe. Solace is his promise to rescue the souls of the worthy and include them within his divine self. The Holy City of Malkonwal disappears because all within have become at one with Malkion through their worship and his holy quest.
You may wonder why I think this is important. I think it's important because the Carmanians and Arkati (who are central to the development of Dragon Pass) split off from Hrestolism before the GLs had changed it. Their beliefs and mythic structures would be based on the original stories, not on the GL-ized stories.
I'd like to see a resolution to this problem. What do you all think?
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