Those of us who attended RQ Con (insert copious general praise of MOB, John, and Andrew here) and heard Greg's address have now heard the true path of the Red Goddess (and I think that there were several glorious conversions over the weekend, as barbarians acknowledged the truth of the Lunar way).
And armed with my several new books of Lunar lore, I have a few
bizarre Lunar theories and questions to try out on the Daily over the next
few days.
The first and most outrageous theory is that Argrath, at the end of King of Sartar, is deliberately helping the Red Goddess when he tears the Red Moon from the sky.
Nick already believes that there is enough evidence within KOS to conclude that the Lunars win. Greg believes that you could conclude that as well. A key part of this is the final frantic statement at the end of Argraths saga, about how the Moon is still there but now is invisible.
Now, assume that Argrath hates the expansionist empire that he has fought against most of his life. He hears of its greatest foe, Sheng Seleris, and undertakes a heroquest of enormous difficulty in order to bring him back.
And at first, he thinks it has worked. Sheng goes and chops the Red Emperor up, and generally kicks the Lunar army around, etc. But then it all goes wrong - Sheng doesn't want to destroy the Lunar Empire. He wants to rule it, and create an empire that is probably even worse, from Argraths point of view, as it is not tempered with the Lunar tolerance.
And all sorts of strange refugees end up in his court, and some of them have all sorts of interesting theories. Those White Moonies, possibly. He helps people like the Fazzurites, some of whom are probably as wise in the ways of Lunar magic as Fazzur was. On his visit to the worst hell where Sheng was imprisoned, he may been exposed to other secrets. Gerra, goddess of suffering, is a mask of the Red Goddess. Her illumination occurs in the worst hell. And he already has been exposed to some draconic powers.
So Argrath, with good Lunar reasoning, decides that what he needs to do is not attack the Empire (e has already done that) but heal it. He gathers together his forces, and, probably in cooperation with loyalists to the Lunar path within the Empire, decides to heal the Moon. He probably also reasons that Sheng has shown he can defeat the Red Moon - so the Moon needs to come into its full power, the White Moon. So he wants to bring back the White Moon, which is both the Moon made more powerful to defeat Sheng, and the Moon healed of the need for conquest that so repells him. And with his knowledge of draconic utuma, and perhaps the knowledge of sacrifice from Gerra (or maybe his Lunar allies supply that) he realises that for the Moon to come again, the Moon must be destroyed. He destroys the Moon in order to heal it.
Any comments?
A David (but I'm not telling which one)
Computing Officer |"Our machines are disturbingly lively,
Arts Faculty UWA |and we ourselves frighteningly inert."
davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au | -Donna Haraway
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