> Nick Brooke mentioned worship of "Yelmalio" in Prax since the Second
> Age. May I suggest that the name of their deity was not Yelmalio, that
> this name is something they gained from Monrogh after he convinced them=
> that his vision applied to them as well? Isolated as they were, and
> oft-invaded, I could believe the Praxian Yelmalions would no longer
> remember the true name of the deity they worshiped.
Why?
How the heck do you "forget" the name of your god? Light Priest literacy requirements alone would make this rather difficult. Agreed, some of the nomad usurpers may have had a shaky grasp on theology, morality, etc. But isolation and invasion by outsiders tend to bind people more closely to their God: consider the Jews, perhaps? ("You'd think they'd have forgotten His name by now...")
Monrogh could have brought a religious revival to Sun County (coming back=
from Teshnos with the Vision of the Many Suns); I personally feel that he learned at least as much from the Praxian temple, recovering from his desert ordeal, and that the name, scripture and rites of "Yelmalio" were something he acquired in the Praxian Sun Dome and brought thence to his homeland of Dragon Pass.
There is more evidence for a *long* history for the Yelmalio Cult (inc. Sun County, Troll Gods, RQ2 sources passim, and the "Life of Harmast" manuscript) than for recent "invention" from whole heroquesting cloth (one essay of uncertain provenance by "Hilliam Wants West").
If we accept that worship of Elmal (in Orlanthi tribes) and Yelmalio (in Dara Happan-built Sun Dome Temples) existed side by side for many centuries *before* Monrogh, and that Monrogh's "Vision" allowed him to establish an Orlanthi Sun Dome Temple in Dragon Pass peopled by former worshippers of Elmal -- that seems both dramatic and consistent to me. Monrogh still achieves great things, "creates" the cult of Yelmalio (in Dragon Pass), reforms it (in Prax), and leads the Elmali to the promised land; while the rest of the world doesn't get crapped on by another unnecessary rethink. Hey, Greg can even keep his "Cold Sun Soldiers" from the First Age Bright Empire!
Seems sensible to anyone?
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Nick
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