Impersonal DHan Yelm

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 98 20:09 MET DST


I claimed
>> Yelm doesn't have personality - he has rules. Rebellus Terminus
>> doesn't have personality - he has rules to break. Orlanth has 
>> personality - he has whims.

Trotsky
> I think Yelm does have a personality, albeit a very uptight and
> rigid one.

IMO if any, Yelm has a very abstract personality. The Dara Happan way of belief has depersonalized deities, effectively offices rather than their holder. Yelm is not a name but a title (maybe meaning brightface or Emperor of the Universe). Everything Yelm does is dictated by his office. Yelm _is_ the office.

The same probably goes for most other DHan deities, although Alkothi have a very personal relation to Shargash - whether this is "shamanistic" or "mystical" or even "materialist" in nature I can't really say.

> But at any rate, he isn't impersonal, as he clearly acts like a
> 'person' in the myths (albeit an idealised one), rather than just
> a force of nature.

IMO Yelm acts as a force of morality in his myths, not as a "flesh-and-blood" person. To do so would harm his essence.

> Many of the older gods are indeed somewhat impersonal; the
> Celestial Court for example, or all those gods that seem to turn
> up in Greg's creation myths of late who never hang around to *do*
> anything other than give birth to another set of deities.

I guess you can bunch Yelm into this bundle.

Of course I am speaking of Dara Happan Yelm here. Pentan Yu-Kargzant, Kargzant, maybe "Yelm", or whatever does have a well-developed personality for being chieftain of a tribe of riders, but their approach might be even more shamanistic than the Orlanthi approach to their deities.

I'm not sure about Dara Happan rice-growing peasantry aka padders - they might have a more personal relation to their Lodril (wasn't their cult described as ecstatic?). The other Dara Happans (barring Lunar or Carmanian immigrants) may have deities which are more accessible. The DHan nobility might claim: "What is good for nobility is too high for peasants; what (innocent?) peasants do would be immoral if performed by noble Yelmites."


End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #119


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