I thought I should try to answer some of my own questions re Gods Free Will and Cacodemon, Crimson Bat, and so on, using my theories.
I propose that there are certain manifestations which are not runic. Maybe they are not pure enough to be runic, maybe they were simply not fully understood by the God Learners in order for them to be classified. I would give as examples of manifestations: Disease, Volcanos, Herds and The Crimson Bat.
The "rune", as such, of the "Disease" manifestation is owned by Malia, Volcanos are owned by Lodril, Herds by Eiritha and The Crimson Bat by The Crimson Bat.
This latter association says that there are 2, or maybe 3, things called The Crimson Bat. There is a God, a "rune" (maybe), and a manifestation.
In other words, The Crimson Bat manifestation is as to The Crimson Bat God, the same as Disease is to Malia, or even Wind as to Orlanth.
Now my theory states that God predominates Manifestation, so destroying the Manifestation does not destroy the God. However, destroying the Manifestation has serious effects on the myths supporting the worshippers who support the existence of the God so it may indirectly wipe him out.
Let me give a couple of examples:
All the Praxian herds are destroyed. Serious effects on the nomads whose myths regarding herds and Eiritha suddenly seem useless. Myths change to accomodate the situation, and Eiritha no longer seems such an important goddess anymore. Worshippers disappear, she loses power, and is in danger of being destroyed.
However, assume that a group of priestesses at the Paps continue to believe in her, and they maintain at least one myth which supports the role of herds in survival in Prax. This is enough to keep the goddess alive, which means there is still some manifestation of herds in Prax. By my quantum theory this starts of as just a probability of a herd appearing, but if the priestesses succeed in converting enough followers, eventually a herd reappears.
Imagine now the Crimson Bat - which I know gets destroyed at some point or another. As in the Eiritha example above the removal of the manifestation has not destroyed the god, as long as at least some Crimson Bat worshippers remain to maintain a "second coming" bat myth. The Crimson Bat manifestation persists, but very weakened, translating into a miniscule chance of an actual Bat appearing (I'm assuming that the amounf of worship quantae needed to produce something like a Crimson Bat is considerably more than that needed to produce a herd of bison). If the worshipper strength increases eventually a second Crimson Bat will turn up. This will be explained by the priests with a tale of how the first Bat was only killed in physical form, etc, etc.
If you really want to get rid of the Crimson Bat once and for all you must get at that "second coming" myth and destroy it. Then there will be nothing left for worshippers to work with and The Crimson Bat God will cease to exist.
Cheers
Richard
Richard Develyn (http://www.skaro.demon.co.uk)
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