Lightfore

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 07:51:08 -0500



Further to Guy & Peter, and following up my original allusion:

The reasons for suspecting a connection between Yelmalio (and therefore Elmal, the closely related barbarian sun god) and the planet Lightfore boil down to the following:

Per Elder Secrets, Lightfore was worshipped in the Great Darkness as the
"Little Sun". But while this planet is a nice thing to have in the
darkness, it doesn't exactly light up the sky, or provide much heat to its followers. It's better than nothing, but not much...

Thus the link to Yelmalio: a god of Light but not Heat or Flame, who fights against the Darkness (*in* the Darkness: note all his spells that work well in dark places, or bring light to them) but is famous for being crapped on in the course of his battles; also, claimed as a Solar deity (son of the Sun) but not recognised as such by the Dara Happans (who had their own
"Little Suns" other than Lightfore in the Darkness, what with
Lesilla/Sedenya, Antirius, and the like). (Yeah, I know the Jenarong horse nomads had Kargzant/Lightfore, but they're coming from a different culture altogether, turning up at the end of the Darkness to rule the lowland city/ruins).

So having the planet Lightfore as the "Cold Sun", the Sun bereft of its heat powers, makes sense to me. The Dara Happans acknowledge that Lightfore is a Son of Yelm (or Dayzatar?), too, so that even if this association had faded from worshippers' memories by the 1620s, it could be worth the Sun Domers' while reinforcing it nowadays in order to gain acceptance from the traditional Solar religion of the Empire.

Besides, we know nothing much about the cult or myth of Lightfore, so there's no reason not to strap this chrome onto the planet for a bit of fun.



Nick

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