> 1) Huraya.
> Who's this water girl? And where can I read about her?
> I have used her in all of my campaigns, being more and more curious about
> her origins. From what i understood, some see her as some "concubine" of
> Orlanth... I have different interpretations, but most of them link her to
> Heler.
> The first approach is that Huraya was just another "damsel in distress"
> saved by Orlanth during one of his adventures. She gave him the "Scarf of
> Mist" (sorry I only remember the french name) and she got adopted in
> Orlanth's tribe...
> The second approach I have is that Huraya is the secret daughter of Ernalda
> and the "not-so-legendary-faithful" Heler. I mean, it happened one day,
> Orlanth had been away from his stead for quite long, and Heler was keeping
> safe his king's village, his king's people and his king's wife... well,
> those things do happened. The daughter was abandonned because Orlanth saw
> her as the constant reminding of Heler's treachery (I guess he understood
> what happened, he's not that stupid). So the child was banished. But with
> time, Ernalda convinced Orlanth to change his mind and Heler never failed
> again. So eventually, Orlanth managed to save Huraya and take in her
> legitimate family. I like this story because it makes mist the daughter of
> earth and rain, something like the morning dew.
> The third approach I imagined is that Heler was so very faithful to Orlanth
> that one night, he managed to take Ernalda's place and he spent the night
> with his king. Once again, Huraya was the result of this unlikely one-night
> affair. And once again, such an offspring couldn't be kept in plain view.
> She was abandonned, and later Orlanth eventually decided to take her back
> where she rightfully belonged under a false pretend ("She's just another
> girl I saved, she's got nothig left in the world, let's be generous and
> offer her a home,...")
> Well, I'm aware that those ideas are highly subjective and wouldn't fit with
> most of your Gloranthas. But i can live with that, since i like them. I just
> was wondering if there were any material or suggestion that I could use to
> extend or replace those theories.
I've been chewing over this same question, although I haven't formulated a myth about her rescue yet. I like the idea that she's rescued from the water spirits for two reasons. 1) It's parallel to the Lightning Spear and the Sandles of Darkness in that its an item taken from another pantheon. The Shield of Arran, I suspect, was wrestled from Babs Gor rather than simply loaned, so that would make all 4 of a type. 2) These items represent Orlanth's conquest of the other elements. They're part of how he became king of the gods. He keeps them as trophies or regalia.
That said, I like the idea that Heler is involved somewhere (and for a while I mulled over the idea that she was his sister). The problem with the adultery story is that, as KoDP emphasizes at a couple of points, adultery is a major crime in Orlanthi society. If you want to sleep with someone else, you divorce your spouse and marry the other person. So the idea that Ernalda got it on with Heler is a major problem. While the Greeks loved stories of their gods cheating on their partners, it's hard to imagine the Orlanthi telling stories about Orlanth or Ernalda committing a major crime with no serious repercussions, since for the Orlanthi, unpunished crimes usually open the door to chaos. This also problematizes the idea that Huraya is Orlanth's concubine, unless we assume that clan chiefs are allowed to keep concubines as a token of their power or something.
One way to get around this is to set the story of Huraya early in Orlanth's career. She's a bedwife from his early days that he still keeps around out of affection. But when Orlanth rescues Heler from Aroka, he's already married to Ernalda, so anything that involves Heler getting it on with either Ernalda or Orlanth involves a major crime.
Andrew E. Larse
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