Well, first I have to say I have some sympathies with Andrew Joelsons suggestion that conceivably the god worshipped in Carmania is, for all intents and purposes, Humakt having been spread by wandering Humakt disillusioned with Arkat who joined up with Talor. Or they could have got the cult much later, in the times of the Three Brothers who divided the world, from Saird (of course Humakt comes from Saird, everything comes from Saird ;-), except the things that don't, of course), at the time the Carmanians got into the Lightbringers quest and so on. I'd rather have someone who has a better grasp of things Carmanian than me decide, though. Its worth noting that Syranthir himself performs a 'severing of his kin' with an iron sword, which sounds sort of Humakti, and predates the founding of modern Carmania.
Andrew's other suggestion
>I prefer to think that YT actually joined up with
>the Humakt cult whilst in exile.
I can't agree with, though. I know Andrew is not acquainted with the zero wane Lunar history - Yanafals ends up taking on Humakt one to one precisely because of the Carmanian Humakti summoning him to fight at the Battle of Four Arrows of Light. So there were Carmanian Humakti before Yanafals.
But back to Stephens suggestion
>> Now, Yanafals almost certainly did not worship 'Humakt'. But he
>>almost certainly worshipped a Carmanian god that a Manirian (or
>Provincial
>>Yanafali) would recognise as being a lot like Humakt, and that a God
>>Learner would almost certainly think was the same guy.
>
>This is my entire premise, that he worships a similar deity.
Ah, but the part I balk at is the degree of similarity. A Carmanian variant of Humakt with a different name but many functional similarities? Sure. No one gets upset because Humakt in Ralios is called Humath, has funny allied spirits, and retains some storm connection. The differences are large enough to be plausible, but small enough that old sources don't need to be abandoned. If the Carmanians pronounce Humakt Hamakz or something, and have some Carmanian dualist hang up about him, and have a slightly different code of behaviour (they are probably even more opposed to ambushes, given the Carmanian attitude to Dart Competitions, for example), then that is cool with everyone. Quite possibly there are much more significant differences (perhaps a relationship with the Bashkars), but I expect Humakt as eventually redefined in Carmania to be part of the origin of the Yanafals cult (and the reason why it is so much like the Humakt cult), to summon their god to fight at the battle of Four Arrows of Light, to be worshipped by Carmanian warriors, and in all other ways not conflict with published sources too grievously.
But I have to say I would never describe Carmanos as 'similar' to Humakt. Carmanos is a deity of the Karmanoi, not the Hazzars. He is not a great grim death god, but a hero known for many things, including being a fertile founder of a dynasty. There may well be a connection between the two (as I said, the Bashkars may fit in here somehow), but I don't think you can simply identify one with the other.
Anyway, I think the Carmanian stuff produced so far is absolutely superb, and Gregs older work on the Lunar Empire which predates it is also one of my favourite things from that era. I don't want to see any of it prematurely messed about with just to satisfy an urge to remove untidy deities from inappropriate areas - I'm sure that will be addressed in time.
Cheers
David
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