Mike M's comments about Pavis (or any other mortal now God) brings up a
good point and a question about worship supporting divinity.
Now if it is true that people worship, heroquesting, shapes the form of
interaction that people have with their Gods are people worshipping a
civic spirt and sense of collective Identity that takes the form of
Pavis, the great founder who emodies the character of the city or are
they worshipping the spirit of Pavis himself?
When I'm saying that worship shapes the personficaton of the Gods, I'm
not saying that worship created Orlanth or the wind and storms. instead
I'm saying that the way people worship Orlanth changes his
personification as mortals see it. Thus everyting form they magic and
supernatural effects they can create can change. Even more important
the spirtual character of people can chage (As the Orlanthi have changed
themselves through the Ages).
When I first wrote this, it seemed obvious, but as I stated before
average Gloranthans wouldn't know this, but people like the God Learners
could manipulate this and make quick changes that normaly took
generations to make or would never happen at all (like Tanian(sp)).
Oher cultures and hereos have also done similar though not as drastic
feats. However their must be some basics of nature that can not be and
should not be changed and this eventually came back to wack the God
Learners. I'm working on a short fiction piece that hopefully explain
this in a much less rambling way and maybe even shed some light on the
God Leaner Origins!
John