Hill of Gold

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:22:45 +1200 (NZST)


Harald Smith:

Me>>An Elmali does not lose fire powers because the Elmali do not
>>have fire powers. I assume however that the Elmali goes up the
>>hill to retrieve the Spark of Life to bring back to his local
>>community.

>I've always thought that the core myth of Elmal is that he stays behind
>and protects the community when Orlanth departs.

This is the modern orlanthi interpretation. But look at the figure of Elmalus in the GRoY; there we have him depicted as a raiding king of the Vingkotlings who is only halted by the actions of Shargash. Therefore IMO the myth of Elmal-as-homeguard is a modern interpolation that explains the apparent chiefly status of Elmal among some tribes (like the Berenthtelli) in Heort's time, but it is not necessarily the view that the tribes would have believed in at the time.

>Orlanth is the one who returns with the Spark of Life.

Orlanth returns with the Grand Order which is not the same thing. For the Spark of Life, I was adapting freely from the GoG Prosopaedia which states that: 'Wounded, robbed and hounded from place to place, Yelmalio kept the spark of life throughout the darkness'.

Me>> This is based on the assumption that the Vanchites are
>>worshippers of Elmal based on a comment in CiP that there is
>>no Sun Dome Temple at the Hill of Gold. IMO the Elmali who do
>>not live in Vanch would not know of or think important the HoG
>>myth.

>I would not make this assumption. At this point, it is appears that the
>Vanchites do not particularly honor the Sun God and this is why the Hill
>of Gold has little mythic significance (and hence no reason to have a
>temple there). They may acknowledge whichever Sun God the dominant culture
>of the time demands (Yelm when DH rules, Elmal when Orlanthi rule), but
>place no mythic importance on it

This seems odd to me. We have a Hill which has great significance in the vicinity and it is not revered by the locals. This is the equivalent of Ka'aba not being venerated by the Meccans. For the Hill to have such importance to the Yelmalions and the Dara Happans (for a time), it seems to me that it must been important to the Vanchites. From who else could have the solar heroes learned the ritual of going up the Hill?

>As my contribution in the Enclosure II HiG stories indicate, the
>importance for Vanchites is what they can scavenge/salvage from others,
>including the occasional quester to the Hill of Gold.

I have not yet Enclosure II yet (nor GlorCon IV compendium nor Tentacles over Barawhatever nor Tales #17 nor RQA #6 - Woe is Me!) so I cannot comment on this yet.

Me>>How can they know the story where Antirius wins when they know that
>>such a thing has never happened?

>But Antirius does win--he just has to be wounded and die to do so. After
>all, Antirius is the Bearer of Justice and justice died. So the only way
>to bring back justice is to go to the Underworld to recover it.

Antirius does not win at the Hill of Gold. He is not invoked by the Ten Princes when the Orb is recovered nor is the Orb recovered by the Emperor at the time. So to say that 'Antirius must win at the Hill of Gold' does not seem to be a statement that Dara Happans would agree with.

>Peter notes that the Orb is the source of Authority. As such, it is an
>imperial relic, a symbol of the ultimate authority of the Emperor.

Careful. It was seen as the Symbol of Authority for the Khordavu Dynasty and not necessarily for _all_ dynasties. In particular, the Jenarong Dynasty, which was thoroughly legitimate, did _not_ need the orb to rule. Likewise I must voice my suspicion that the tale of How Antirius lost the Orb is a spurious justification for depriving the Vanchites of their ancient relic (ie the Orb was never Dara Happan to begin with).

>If the Red Emperor, for example, was to lose his Authority, he might be
>able to call upon Antirius to accompany him to the Hill of Gold to recover
>that Authority (and it ideally would be recovered in the form of the Orb).

He could and this would have been a viable option when Sheng Seleris danced across Peloria. The only flaw is that he would have almost certainly encountered Sheng (or whoever deprived him of his of his authority).

>Anyone else attempting to go there to recover the Orb would likely fail,
>because they are not Emperor and thus cannot command Antirius.
>An exception was with the 10 Princes, but I suspect there was something
>more to that quest than we know about--something that has long since been
>forgotten.

The nature and number of the known quests (to wit: two emperors failed on the quest with Antirius and one non-emperor succeeding without Antirius) seems to suggest the statement that 'people who quest for the Orb without Antirius are doomed to failure' is false.

Powered by hypermail