Sorry about this late reply, to a message that is probably now a dead issue.
>Is Yelmalio Lightfore? Is Yellow Red? They are both part of the
>Visible Spectrum of EM Radiation, so are the same. This seems to be
>the argument that many poeple take. Both gods are Sun Gods, therefore
>they are the same.
You seen to have missed the point - the original question was 'is the God Yelmalio believed to be the same as the planet Lightfore?'. The discussion as I understand what was not another 'is Yelm Somash?' type discussion, but a discussion of what the various Yelmalio/ Antirius/ Elmal etc. worshippers believe as regards to their gods relationship to various celestial bodies.
Personally, I think that Lightfore Is Yelmalio in the opinions of most Yelmalions people, except possibly the Elmali influenced.
>In Glorantha, there are many Sun Gods (or rather Solar Gods) and they
>are not all the same.
>They are separate. (I am not being dogmatic, merely stating
>the truth :-))
You are not stating the truth, merely being dogmatic :-( The various sun gods are not 'separate'. They are often the resultof intermingled cultural traditions, and they partake of the same primal powers, and it is often really hard to pin down what is what. They are also, however, not 'the same'.
To take a classic example, is Yelm Idovanus? No. Is Yelm completely separate from Idovanus? No. They are both sun gods, with similar powers. Some people at some point in the past have considered them to be the same being. Some others have strongly felt they are not. It is now quite impossible to determine what exactly is part of one god and what is part of the other because of thousands of years of cultural intermingling between the two.
Anyone that thinks of a god as being a single divine being, in an AD&D style, is eventually going to run into unresolvable problems. Well, if Yelm and Idovanus are separate guys, how come they can be treated as the same person without too many problems? But they are definately not the same, becuase people proved that once?
Gods are not Men. Or even individuals. A good way to think of it is a god is a pathway on the heroplane. Agod is made up of individual heroes, if you want to think of it that way, because without the first heroes there wouldn't be that path. A good is also made up of his worshippers - the path is stronger the more people follow it. A god is also something besides - if the worshippers weren't there, the path would get overgrown, but not completely disappear (unless it was a very small path to begin with). And gods can be both separate and have lots in common - the same way as two different routes can have large sections in common.
Anyway, enough ranting on a well covered topic.
Cheers
David
Powered by hypermail