Riddle & Elmal from Carlson, Pam on 1997-06-04 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: Carlson, Pam <carlsonp_at_wdni.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 11:59:00 -0700

Mike Mittmann

>>Why are these numbers in the following order?
>>854907632

>Because the author is not a programmer?

True enough! But that is not the illuminating answer. Any takers? As with illumination, anyone figuring this one out will IMMEDIATELY know thwy have found the answer...

Owen Jones politely asks:
> is it possible that Elmal is entirely a construct of Argath's heroquesting?

Not likely - "Elamalus" was a barbarian deity noted by the Dara Happans before the dawn.

Many folks have answered Owen's questions quite well. I'd like to add -

Elmal was the heroic deitiy who stayed around after the sun went away, and gave people light (but not much heat). Thus, Elmal guards the home and people during rough times. He is loyal, tough, and persistant, and honest - like Yelmalio. Some clans consider him an ancestor - mostly those that do a lot of farming in the lowlands. (Because Elmal's fertility magic is darned handy there!) IMO, he is worshipped largely among the Pelorian Orlanthi - big in Scylilla, Vanch, and Holay.

Remember, the gods are usually thought of as giant spirits, not physical objects. Orlanth is not the wind and thunder - he EXPRESSES himself through wind and thunder. The same is true of the sun. The big hot glowy thing in the sky is not Elmal OR Yelm - it's a big hot glowy thing. It's THERE because of Orlanth, who brought it back from the underworld, where it went as a result of Orlanth's slaying the emperor. (Which was a kinslaying - The Emperor was his uncle, remember.) To get it back (and Ernalda, who was taken down there in all the ensuing mayhem), he had to reconcile himself with the Emperor.

Kinslaying is VERRRY bad stuff. It leads to bad juju. So, a big act of kinslaying could easily cause the physical world to fall apart.

2) Here is a point that Jeff Richard beat into me a few years ago - and I have now come to believe it - especially since I've seen Greg use it and stick to it: cultures generally account for the whole world within their own pantheons. It would be ludicrous for the Orlanthi to look at the sun and see the Evil Emperor (an Orlanthi construct that denote the abuse of power), or Yelm, a foreign sun-deity. They look up and see the happy glowy thing that Orlanth restored and Elmal influences, that makes their crops grow and makes sunshine for alynxes to snooze in.

Likewise, it is ludicrous for Dara Happans to assume that the air, wind, and thunder are the domain of some foreign deity. They are of course just a few of the physical manifestations of beloved Entekos and fearsome Shargash. Orlanth is simply some foreign demon that is worshipped by hordes of invading barbarians. Rebellous Terminous is the one who killed Yelm, the Source of all Justice, the stabilizing force in the universe. (RT is NOT Orlanth - it is a constuct that denotes a Denial of Justice.) When this happened, the hot firey thing fell out of the sky - but that was only a part of Yelm. Other, worse things happened, too - Kazkurtem (ie, chaos) crawled into the world.

Therefore, you see both cultures agree on the same events and principles (ie, stability overthrown, choas enters) they just weigh them differently. Where DH's see comfy order, Orlanthi see repression. Neither culture needs a foreign deity to explain the state of the world.

During the First Age, the World Council of Friends (?) combined the myths as part of a plan to unite and reconcile two of its largest member cultures. I don't think their effort made a lasting impression, other than the Orlanthi - when they encounter the DH's, see Yelm as AN Evil Emperor, and the DH's, when they encounter Orlanthi - think of Orlanth as ONE who delights in denying the Just Order of the Universe.

All in the SFC Glorantha, of course...

Pam