>>Ah, but you are looking at things from a modern perspective. The >>Ancient Brithini (Malkion, Zzabur and their contemporaries) were the >>equal of the Gods.
Peter Metcalfe:
> No. The myth stated they were equals of other immortals. The question
> is what was understood by the status of immortals?
Probably a better question is "what was understood by the status of immortal _at that time_?"
According to the Monomyth (which surely isn't too wrong about the Malkioni mythistory, given that it was the Jrusteli researchers' basic assumption), Death had entered the world. This was the Early Storm Age / Late Golden Age, after all, the time when Umath rampaged and slew Aerlit and Warera, in a way sufficiently meaningful to orphan young Malkion.
>>Malkion himself is a direct descendant of the Storm Gods and the >>Water Gods. His son Waertag married a Water Goddess.
> Which is not what Zzabur remembers it, namely that Malkion the
> Immortal is a devolution of a higher Malkion who is a devolution
> of Malkion the Creator.
How sure can we be that the Brithini identify the Creator with Malkion? Semantics alert, but isn't Malkion the Lawgiver only an aspect of the Creator?
> Furthermore Waertag is merely said in ML
> to have been the son of a mermaid and a brithini _sorcerer_.
"All Brithini are sorcerers." Well known fact, that. *
Malkion was a Brithini.
Ergo Malkion was a sorcerer...
> One notes that the False Gods presents a different image.
<snip>
> Prosopaedia p6
> It is clear from this that there is a distinction between the 'wicked
> sorcerers'-cum-Immortals and the natural forces/impersonal forces that
> they control.
Which might be why the Jrusteli researchers had few problems putting the Theyalan (Pelorian-influenced, likely) concept of the Celestial Court into their scheme of things and identify it with the impersonal powers. There are no false Gods by the names of Aether, Zrethus, Zaramaka, Nakala, Tylenea, Uleria, or whichever Court member you want to pick; only the second generation deities ("Burtae"?) and Ehilm get the honor. Ehilm is a problem here, I admit...
> To illustrate matters, returning to the Devolution schematic insofar
> as I understand it:
> 1: The Prime Mover. Creation of the Universe aka The One Mind or The
> Good God.
> 2: Natural Impersonal Forces. Sun, Storm, Earth, Darkness, Water,
> Death etc.
The Powers and the Elements from the Runes. These impersonal forces are the Runes... Forms and the miscellaneous set (Law, Mastery, Fate, Chaos...) may or may not be represented in this.
I suppose it will be useful to dig out the old articles on the runes for this discussion.
> 3: Immortals embodying those forces: Ehilm, Worlath, Humct etc plus
> Malkioni and his sons.
Count in Warera, Aerlit, Britha, Vadela, Seshna, Basmol, Ifftala, Pendal and the other deities encountered by the early Malkioni.
> 4: Us Mortals.
> Now does a Malkioni when he thinks of a God, does he think of an
> entity in stage 2 (ie impersonal forces) or stage 3 (ie humanoid
> immortals)?
Your average non-wizard probably won't really see the difference. Wizards which summon deities to do their bidding probably prefer to deal with the humanoid immortal rather than with the Rune power. Heroes attempt to master the Rune (according to the old concept) and wield the power themselves, what makes them different from deities is their lack of immortality. They (and saints) probably achieve that divine stature - Hrestol and Froalar did on their quests in Seshnela.
> Is it thus credible for Zzabur to say that he is the
> equal of the Gods? If the Gods are really Impersonal Forces then
> IMO the answer is no.
While Zzabur may be deeply into Magic, he seems to retain other links. Thus your average deity is not that impersonal (no more so than Zzabur himself) to the Malkioni.
>>It is only recently, I would say after Time began or certainly after >>the Old Brithini had been killed, that the Brithini deny the >>existence of these deities (if indeed they do). I would prefer to >>believe that the Brithini believe that these deities are actual >>entities who are worshipped by the foolish. Other Malkioni have a >>watered-down theory of demons and false gods, IMO.
> The problem is that the Brithini are fanatically unchanging and we
> can be sure that what Zzabur believed in the year -14, 825 ST (when
> the sun went down), the Brithini still believe today and certainly
> did when Zzabur was still around.
IMO Zzabur underwent a "lapse" in status following the uncertainty after I Fought We Won, and recovered only when prompted by the havoc Hrestol and his friend wrought in Brithos.
> Since Zzabur only vanished in
> 929 ST (and unconfirmed reports of his existance since that time
> are known), it seems resonable to assume that the Brithini PoV has
> not changed over the Great Darkness.
Well, Snodal seems to have believed that he, or at least his machinations, still were around in 1499. The Closing still is in effect. Maybe Zzabur has transcended himself and all of Brithos a level up? Let's speculate in character (of a Malkioni theologist)...
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