> I would like to mention a particularly fabulous theory at this point
> (probably due to Nick Brooke). Are people familiar with the theory that the
> awakening of the goddess was a form of Lightbringers Quest?
Now, one of the intersting points about the LBQ is that you never quite seem to get what you bargained for...Orlanth went to restore the Golden Age and ended up bringing about the great compromise, and general loss of power for all the Gods. Harmast went for Arkat Humaktson to fight Gbaji, but Arkat turned into Arkat Kingstroll, and is considered by some to have been no different from Gbaji by the final battle, and KoS tells us on one page that Argrath went on the quest to fetch Sheng Solaris to fight the Lunars, and yet within a couple of pages he is preparing to fight him (Is that what they mean by an alliance arranged in hell?). This fact is presumably not considered by questors, or they consider that anything must be better than what they have at the moment. So maybe the 7 Mothers just get bad press, They never intended their new goddess to go fetch the crimson bat as a pet....
Another thought about illumination and immortality
A thought occured to me this morning. Illumination frees one from the ties to and restrictions imposed by the gods. All beings tied to the man Rune are mortal, because Humakt slew Grandfather Mortal. Ralzakark has been around since before the great compromise. Ralzakark is illuminated. Now these facts may be unrelated, and if Ralzakark wasn't illuminated until after the creation of Nysalor, they may just prove that Broo have very long lifespans if they can stear clear of Storm Bull. But if Nysalor was the rebirth of a god-time deity, just not Ostentelka (sp?) then it would certainly be a possibility. I don't know what other long lived beings might support or disprove this theory. Mistress Race Trolls, of course are all survivors from before the lesser darkness, as no Uzuz were born once they had to flee to the surface, and if they are illuminated, it would presumably be by Arkat (What do they call it? an illumniant of Black Arkat doesn't sound right...). Whatever, Mistress Race Trolls must have some secret of long life, since the oldest (dark) trolls in the Sazdorf clan are 60 - 90 years (Dorsnon is 89 and is the oldest clan member). One possible answer is that the mortality only affected beings born after Grandfather Mortals death (if that concept has any meaning before time...), although we might expect more surviors were that the case(?).
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