>> Do Elmal and Yelmalio get along?
>Not meaningfully, as they're the same entity. Do God, Yahweh and Allah
>get along? :-)
Jeff :
>Increasingly I question whether they are the "same diety" - although
>perhaps the best way to put this is that to some extent Yelmalio is a
>circumscribed Elmal - Elmal in his Darkness role as the sole protector
of >the people.
As Sergio has said however, the gods are not aware of time. Just as a religion can change over time without the god being worshiped getting upset, so equaly the same god can quite happily be worshiped by different people in very different ways at the same time. I don't think the gods are aware of any contradiction that might be apparent to mortals.
I believe that Elam and Yelmalio are very deffinitely the same god.
When we first hear of Elmal/Yelmalio he is a messenger from Yelm to Orlanth. Orlanth proves that he is a better and more worthy lord than Yelm and so Elmal/Yelmalio agrees to serve him as a thane. When Orlanth goes on the LBQ Elmal/Yelmalio stays t the stead and rules in Orlanth's absence. When Orlanth returns, Elmal/Yelmalio goes back to being a loyal thane, but IMHO their relationship has changed.
There are three different possible social roles for Elmal. One is as Orlanth's loyal than living in the stead. The second is as ruler of the stead while Olranth is off adventuring. The third is as a vassal of Orlanth, but with a stead of his own. After all, when Orlanth returned Elmal isn't going to just fade into the background and be 'one of the boys' along with the other thanes. He's used to ruling a stead of his own, but he's still loyal to Orlanth.
Elmal/Yelmalio can be successfuly worshiped in any of these three aspects. Each represents a very different social role with diffeent responsibilities, obligations and rights. However each is a perfectly valid aspect of the god. If you worship him in one of these aspects it is bound to succeed, because that role is part of who/what the god is, or was. Each is equaly true, yet each is different.
An Elmali can be a than in a stead ruled by an Orlanthi chief. Just as Elmal did before Orlanth went on the LBQ.
An Elmali can rule a clan in an Orlanthi tribe in a predominantly Orlanthi kingdom like Sartar, just as Elmal did after Orlanth returned.
A Yelmalion count can rule his people quite happily in the absence of an Orlanthi king, just as his god did when Orlanth was off galavanting around the underworld. There is no Orlanthi ruling culture in the Zola Fel valley, so the Yelmalions there are on their own. They have no Orlanthi king to be loyal to, but does that mean that their god yelmalio should foresake them? Yelmalio answers their prayers and they pattern their culture on his role as ruler of the stead. He's not Orlanth and he doesn't rule the same way that Orlanth would, but he still rules.
Perhaps also their worship of Yelmalio also harks back to Yelmalio as he was before he swore allegiance to Orlanth. That's still an aspect of their god, and is still valid, but it's still the same god.
This is how the 'timelessness' of the godtime and the heroplane realy works. Us mortals living in the present can ask the question 'What is Elmal or Yelmalio like _now_', but that question has no meaning for him. He is each of these things simultaneously, without contradiction.
Simon Hibbs
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