Dead Gods - Yelm - Lunars

From: Martin Laurie <MLaurie_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 14:20:08 -0400


Andrew Joelson
> Shargash=3DVadrus is untrue. Vadrus, like Genert, is gone. Not
> dead (like Basmol, who can still be contacted), _gone_. He was
> destroyed during the Greater Darkness.

Me:
> So say the Orlanthi. You're assuming that their view is entirely
> accurate ....<long snip>... Your comment on Basmol being dead but
> still worshipped while Vadrus is GONE is an interesting one but
> highlights quite clearly for me the problems of taking cult descrip-
> tions at face value.

Andrew:
> Actually no. This is from the GC IV Lore Auction, where people
>were asking the questions like, "What's the difference between dead gods=

>and gods that are gone?" and "What does it take to ressurect Genert?"

Thats the Gloranthan answer but not necessarily the correct answer. =

Just because a Praxian knows that Genert is GONe doesn't mean that =

he actually existed in the first place. His lack of existance as anythin= g =

other than a myth to explain the horrible terrain in Prax is seems far =

more likely to me than this big giantish guy getting killed by chaos =

monsters. As for Basmol, the Basmoli are a remnant people from =

a powerful empire, its plain that their myths would explain this away =

and explain why_ they no longer had an Empire. =

Magic:
>> You can't just pick and chose. Cultural bias, views and predelictions=

>> tend to stop this kind of thing.

> Of course you can! That's what Lunar balance is all about.

Lunar balance?!? The lunars are just as prone to cultural bogotry as anyone else. They have their own methods and own ideas and own magics which they know are superior to everyone elses so why lower themselves to=

the barbaric level and use the hairies silly magics?

>Tell a carmanian that he has a cultural bias against Storm and he'll
>tell you that they worship Valind as one of the One Hundred Gods, and
>it's a pity that Dara Happans view him as an enemy. Not the Lunars,
>mind you, the Dara Happans. The Pelandans and Naverians don't care one
>way or the other. Talastar, Saird, blah, blah, blah.....

Er... Lunars don't dislike Valind? Who are the Lunars anyway? Are they=

some specialised group that lives in a special place or are they people i= n
every part of the Empire with their own biases based on culture and tradition? Take Christianity and tell me that the people worshipping in one church are going to be the same as people worshipping in another in a=

different part of the world.

I don't see your point. Sure there is cultural variance and sure small groups use magic not used by the bulk of the Empire but that doesn't mean=

that the magical classes will all suddenly start learning Command Sylph.

> If someone were to tell me that the Lunars tend not to use
>Air/Storm powers as they have other powers that are easier to access, I
>could go with it. But the Dara Hapan population is only about 30% of
>the Empire; a significant fraction, but not overwhelming. Stop being
>so 'Yelm-o-centric'.

The Lunars don't use storm powers because the bulk of the heartlands population is predisposed not too and their magical tradition is very different. 30% is an innaccurate figure unless you are taking the Genertela book as a guide and even then the problem of determining "what = is
Dara Happan" is a big one. Try working out how many people are actually lunars and I'm talking inititates here from those figures. The Yelm cult=

is very small as befits a noble cult but the bulk of the population acknowledge Yelm and there have been Yelmic Emperors in Peloria for millenia. Even the Red Emperor was a Yelmic Emperor though the tradition=

seems to have slipped.

I'm not being Yelm-o-centric, I'm Stom-o-centric if anything. I merely can't see why the lunars would use big scale storm powers of any kind oth= er
than through specialised cults like Shargash.

Martin Laurie


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