Serpent Kings

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 21:43:25 +1300 (NZDT)


Joerg Baumgartner:

Me>>The Serpent Kings (I wouldn't describe them as Malkioni)
>>went all the way to Hrelar Amali where they added Temples to
>>Orlanth and Magasta (according to the Jonstown Compendium).

>The Compendium doesn't exactly say that it were the Serpent Kings who
>built the temples. From what I recall out of hand from Hrestol's Saga,
>the late Serpent King dynasty were hardly an efficient gouvernment.

The New Hrestoli Way were closing down the Temples so they couldn't have erected the shrines. Furthermore the Dangan confederacy were occupying Hrelar Amali around 132 ST and there's no indication that they were displaced by the Seshnegi from Hrelar Amali after that. So IMO the Seshnegi occupied Hrelar Amali sometime during the first century which removes your objection about the weak government of the late Serpent Kings.

>>Then the Serpent Kings died out and a reactionary movement
>>took over (although I do believe they were considerably more
>>henotheistic than modern Malkioni).

>I agree to that statement. I mean, Hrestol had close contact with
>non-Malkioni deities during his decisive quests, and not just as
>enemies; and the wizards were known to manipulate deities to do their
>bidding (i.e. they propitiated them with sacrifices etc, not too
>dissimilar from the way the greater spirits are called into action in
>Nomad Gods).

But the New Hrestoli Man by no means the same person as Hrestol IMO. What I meant wasn't propitiatory sacrifices but that the NHW relationship with the gods was more akin to demonology. After all Cults of Terror claims about the humanists:

        'The Malkioni race founded the Wizards, who think they can
        shape the universe without _consent_ (my emphasis) from the 
        Gods who are believed to rule everywhere else'.
                                Cults of Terror p11.

The Serpent Kings IMO carried out bloody sacrifices to their native gods. The NHW reaction was to put the gods in their proper place and rely on the power of their God to keep the other gods under control.

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