Me>I meant that the cult of course existed but
>wa sinfluenced by Arkat. The theory goes that Humath was the cult of
>Death/Storm within Orlanthi society and Lokomayadon controlled the cult
>through his control of the initiation and other rituals. Arkat managed to
>seize control of the cult by proving that Humath had severed his kin ties
>during the Storm Age and then created or "found" a whole new set of
rituals
>to empower the cult. So Humath + Arkat =3D HumathArkat =3D Humakt. =
>Thats the theory anyway - you must have heard this before?
Actually that is not exactly the theory I just proposed. Humath was the cult of Death/Storm within lowland Ralian society. In order to maintain internal consistency with Harmastssaga and various other First Age sagas, I do think that the Heortlings sacrificed to Humakt as a War/Death god before Arkat. Humakt was recognized as Orlanth's Weapons-Thane and the severance myth was to absolve his kin from the heinous deeds that Humakt would do (KoS p. 67).
I believe however that Arkat showed that Humath was severed from the Storm as well. Further, the severance myth that Arkat showed was that Humath-Arkat severed himself from Storm (High Storm) using the old WF myth (Humakt was betrayed by Orlanth's stealing of Death). I still believe that this was done to prevent Humath from falling under the influence of the High Storm. If the Ralian Humath possessed a Storm King aspect analogous to Orlanth then I believe that the "Curse of the Evil Year" could apply to Humath worship as well. Once the Storm was invoked, High Storm had to be acknowledged. Presumably, the Ralian Humathi had to either (1) acknowledge High Storm and Lokomayadon, which I believe many did; or (2) strip Humath the Storm God down to Humakt the Death God, which I believe Arkat the Son of Humakt accomplished.
>(Greg) Hmmm, I have heard parts of it, and also an earlier version.
>I don't think it is so, at least in my ongoing Harmast experience.
It is always possible that Greg has a cooler series of stories revolving around Arkat abandoning the Malkioni faith and becoming acknowledged as the Son of Humakt. However, I have never heard any and until I do, I will continue to proselytize the Arkat-Humakt severance under the "cool theory better than no theory" doctrine. Let us Make It So!
Jeff
Powered by hypermail