Heroes, Heler & Yelmalio, Praxian Sun

From: Stephen P Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 02:23:24 EST


To all:

After being gone only one day, I am now almost caught up, two days later. I am now on Digest #82.

I cannot imagine what I am going to do when I am gone to B.C. this summer for about 2 weeks. It'll take an hour just to download the approx. 50 Digests (at least!) I expect during that time.

Now, on to business.

Robert McArthur <mcarthur_at_fit.qut.edu.au> Re: Killing Harrek, or the Chicken and the Egg
>
>Perhaps I've got heroquesting all wrong, but my understanding of
becoming a
>hero is that you have a backdoor out of hell: at least the same one as
used
>by your god. Thus, heroes (and superheroes) may actually *be* killed by
>some enourmous act. The big problem is stopping the b&gger from coming
back
>from the dead and either a) coming back just after you've killed 'em, or
>b) looking up your address later.
>

I think this is an old viewpoint, which is no longer correct. Not all heroes have access to such a backdoor, IMO. This idea originally comes from the Heroic Escapes of White Bear & Red Moon, and I think it is an idea which is taken a bit too literally. In some cases.

>Heroes and superheroes are hard to kill...it's even harder to keep them
dead!
>

I think most of the returning we can attribute to DI and followers who worship gods with Resurrection, Seal Spirit, or the like. Other explanations are possible -- I once suggested that Rurik Runespear came back in the following manner:

He finds a pure Bronze Bone (from Plunder), which he attunes. He then gets killed by trolls, and his spirit enters the bone.

A few years later, his bones are found. A single drop of Arroin's Blood cures all the wounds of his body, and his spirit then leaves the bone and re-enters it. Instant resurrection. Sort of.

Now, maybe Arroin's Blood won't heal a body that far gone, but this shows there are more ways back from Hell than most people have heard of!

>PS. after all RL/RPs get DI, shamans get to come back!
>

Shamans don't get to come back in RQ3, now do they? Don't rely upon rules too much when trying to understand (or create) parts of Glorantha.

Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com> Sky Dome Program
>
>That was a mite demoralising, and I lost interest in finishing the
program
>off. After all, there were plenty of other things I could be doing with
my
>time that were more productive and satisfying.
>
>Nowadays, I don't think any Sky Dome program could ever be a 100%
accurate
>reflection of what Greg thinks the Gloranthan night sky actually looks
like.
>
>It's very frustrating to work under those circumstances, and I've
decided
>not to do so any more. After all, this is my *hobby* - if I want
>aggravation in my life, that's what my day job's for. Nobody is paying
me
>to put up with this shit. (If anyone would *like* to pay me to put up
with
>this shit, my email address is in the header to this post). I've decided
>that in future, when the fun goes out of a project, so will I.
>

Nick -- I offered quite some time ago to take over this for you, and try to get it closer to 100% (like 81%). The offer still stands.

>My program is probably over 80% complete. It runs a bit clunkily (screen
>update can take a few seconds, even on a fast computer, so scrolling
>through the hours of the night isn't as smooth as I'd like it to be),
and
>there's some stuff I *know* is wrong but can't be bothered to change
(e.g.
>Southpath is a constant, no difference between "odd" and "even" years'
>planetary motion, etc.). All that being said, it's quite a pretty piece
of
>software, and I do feel rather proud of it.
>

Nick is understating here -- if you are at all interested in Gloranthan star lore, the program is gorgeous to watch. I have added a bunch of holy days to it, from Gods of Glorantha and other sources. It is neat to watch the planets move across the sky as the stars rotate. I love it. Of course, I would love it more if Greg had not told Greg (incorrectly, he later realized) to have Yelm and Lightfore switch places...

>Given the recent mention in "Starry Wisdom #1", and interest expressed
at
>RQ-Cons and Convulsions past, I have decided to make my "Gloranthan
>Ephemeris" freely available to the whole world: as soon as I get it up
>there, you'll be able to download it (errors and all) from my homepage
as
>freeware.
>

Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com> Heler/Elmal
>
>Stevie writes:
>

Please don't call me this, as it only annoys me.

>> As for Heler being a martial deity, I am getting tired of arguing this
>> point.
>
>Why do you suppose you have to argue it so often, eh? It couldn't be
that
>the people you're arguing with are right, could it? :-)
>

Well, you know I could never admit it even if they were. :)

>>From GoG Prosopaedia:
>
>"Heler is usually pictured as a handsome blue-skinned man, accompanied
by
>or calling clouds. He is *never* armed [my emphasis], to show that his
blue
>skin is not woad (worn only by warriors)... Heler is occasionally
>considered a militant deity, but rarely an effective one."
>

I accept this, with one proviso -- this is one version of how he is pictured. I am sure there is some Orlanthi group which gives him the Lightning Spear.

>That is hardly an answer to my question (and BTW, I am not MOB). I'll
>rephrase it: can you think of *anything* about the Sun Dome Temple that
>looks like the result of Aldryami influence?
>

Sorry about the incorrect reference -- failed my low "Identify Originator" roll. I have never claimed any aldryami influence of the Sun Dome Temple in Prax. Merely that the god has aldryami roots, to some extent. Since _nothing_ official has been published about the elven Yelmalio cult and its practices, I have no way of knowing how many of those practices they took from the elves.

"Guy Hoyle" <guyhoyle_at_chrysalis.org>
Praxian Sun God?
>
>I remember (vaguely) from Cults of Prax that the khans of Waha are
>required to sing the "Song of Rising Waha" at dawn each day, which of
>course suggests some kind of solar ties for the deity. Granted, Waha
>is not implicitly a solar deity, but the lack of any other candidate
>except for the Sun Hawk spirit makes him a possibility.
>

I prefer to interpret this to mean that Waha was the deity who raised the Sun at the Dawn, rather than Storm Bull (as his worshipers claim). Personally, I think Waha's sky aspect is in the planet Shargash/Tolat, which I call Bronze Treasure.

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

- -----------------------------------------------
The Book of Drastic Resolutions
drastic_at_juno.com

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