<< IMO if any, Yelm has a very abstract personality.>>
OK, I wouldn't dispute that Yelm's personality is pretty abstract by comparison with a mortal's - or with Orlanth's for that matter.
<<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.>>
To be sure, everything Yelm does is Just, because he is the rightful Emperor, and therefore, by definition, Just. But I don't think that (in the 17th C anyway) Yelm is regarded as *being* Justice, but more as a personification *of* Justice. He is not, IMO, impersonal in a way that the materialist Law of Gravity is impersonal - and it was that contention which I was originally challenging.
Being Just is a feature of personality (its even a personality trait in Pendragon) so the fact that Yelm acts in a Just way seems to me to indicate that he is, at some level, a personified entity. The fact that he cannot chose not to be Just is not, IMO, a feature of lack of personality, but rather of his lack of free will - I don't believe that the one impels the other.
If not, then what is the difference between the worldview of the sorceror and the Yelmic priest?
<<Me: > 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.>>
Yelm clearly does not act as a "flesh-and-blood" person, no; that's what I meant by 'idealised'. But I don't really think an impersonal force can have (or be) a morality.
<<Me:> 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.>>
On reflection I think you're probably right that Yelm is broadly equivalent to the Celestial Court gods. But Aether Primolt, for example, is, as I understand it, just a general principle of fireyness and doesn't possess things like Justice or morality, so I think he'd be less personal than Yelm.
To reduce it to the level of game mechanics Yelm has, for example, a Pendragon Justice trait of at least 40. High enough to be beyond anything that mere mortals could attain and high enough that he can't chose not to be Just (he'd critical every roll). Aether Primolt, possibly, and the Law of Gravity, certainly, just don't have the stat at all.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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