Elementals

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 19:22:36 +1300 (NZDT)


Stephen Martin:

>Thus, priests of Yelm might be able to command other elementals through
>his servants, and Ernalda could certainly borrow elementals from her
>various Husband-Protectors and/or her children by them.

One has to remember that the Pelorians do not accept the five elemental cosmology of the Malkioni and the Theyalans. So even though Yelm is a massive cult, his priests would not necessarily recognize the elements as they exist in the RQ3 sense. They would be able to call upon a whole panoply of spirits from the heavens of which some would resemble the traditional elementals in parts.

For example, they would recognize three sylph-type spirits that can be called from Umatum, Shargash and Dendara. None of them would IMO confer the power of flight (a Orlanthi power which the Pelorians seem to have great difficulty in duplicating) and all would be recognizably different from each other and the traditional sylph of the Orlanthi.

Besides, the Young Elementals controlled by the Lunars are _not_ really the traditional RQ3 elementals, they are spirits representing the four corners of the earth and are more akin to the guardians of the four directions in 'Sun County'. However the Seven Mothers have their own interpretation of the young elementals to make them more attractive to potential (alakoring?... nah) orlanthi converts.

>But, Storm Voices, the priests of Orlanth, would gain very different
>magics from the Four Magic Weapons, as befits their different divine
>focus: they would gain Command Salamander, Command Undine, Command Gnome,
>and Command Shade from these subcults.

I have problems with this. Looking at information about the standard Orlanthi priests from various sources, virtually none of them appear to command elementals other than sylphs. So why should we start giving them salamanders, undines, gnomes and shades now?

You may have a case for the Orlanthi priests of a certain region (like say the sophisticated Holy Country) to view Orlanth in this matter, but I do not feel that it should apply to every Orlanthi.

Powered by hypermail