"We must evict the Lunars from our land as soon as possible. They are wrecking our bond with our gods and plaguing us with corruption and chaos, such that it seeps into our very minds."
"A crafter of our clan, Liebsen-wright, who was a worshipper of the Knowing God, came to our clan ring. While trading his wares, he spoke with a follower of the accursed Red Sage. The sage asked him about the worship of Elmal, the loyal thane; he then asked Amorcrafter what he thought had happened to Elmal, that many who had worshipped Elmal now worship Yelmalio. And if Elmal is the sun, and is the loyal thane, then who did Orlanth slay with Humakt's sword - did he slay Yelm, Yelmalio, or Elmal? Was the shield of Elmal that Orlanth borrowed the Sun disk, and if Elmal stayed awake during the darkness, then how was there the Great Darkness and so forth. And how could all these gods exist, given that there is only one sun in the sky? Our poor crafter could not answer these questions."
"So befuddled was he that he came to believe that something had happened to Elmal, a thing cooked up by the Lunars to make Elmal sometimes think he is still a member of the Fire Tribe and so aid the Dara Happans. He saidthat if we could penetrate the "deeper nature of reality", we could help Elmal remember who he isand gain magic to defeat the Lunars. Now, this crafter's father had been a Kolating shaman who lived in the wilds, and had taught his son some of the ways of journeying on the spirit world. Liebsen-wright believed that if we gave him magic to "understand the true nature of things", he could help Elmal by finding the truth that Elmal sometimes forgets."
"I argued against this, because it was a Godlearnerish thing to do, and we shold not be tricked by these accursed Riddlers into questioning what we know. But the trickster on the ring thought that the Red Goddess, who he says is a trickster herself, might have fooled Elmal, and that we should help him in remembering who he is so he does not aid our enemies. So we gave the crafter magic, woe to us."
"The poor man went on a spirit quest, and awoke raving mad, saying he had found the spirit of a Godlearner who had told him about their great secret. He ranted that we were all unreal, that we were just a game played by unlozengely beings, and that we had no real substance, but were all just phantoms of themind conjured up for the amusements of these creatures. He claimed all was decided by chance, and that we were all just illusion. We thought he had been possessed by an evil spirit. The Godlearners were evil sorcerors, but they were clever and subtle, and could not believe nonsense like that. Even the rumored evil Book of Drastic Resolutions does not hold such insanities."
"He raved for several days in the same vein, but we were unable to dislodge the evil spirit from him. His delusions were troubling the clan, and I feared for our reputation and magical strength. So I mixed up a tincture and gave it to him, saying that it would help him sleep and be free from his delusions. Which it did, in a way; it was a poison and he died from it in a week. Our healer may have suspected, but she has not mentioned it to me. May Orlanth forgive me for this deed, and forgive our clan for prying into things we should not. "
"For it is obvious that Elmal is still the loyal thane, and is the sun above, but has been weakened by the seducing of his worshippers to worship the Dara Happan god. The power they wield may come from Elmal, but it is probably from one of the pieces that the chaos monsters ripped from him when he fought to defend the stead during the great darkness. The chaos monster must have hid the piece where the Dara Happans could contact it, so they would think that their sun is the evil emperor or Yelmalio. Even the Yelmalions know that their god is incomplete, for they cannot do Fire magic. "
"The chaos gods used that piece also in making Nysalor, who blinded out the truth with his brightess so we would not see he was Gbaji. Chaos can be cunning, as well as brutal. And sometimes they can use our victories against us as well as our defeats."
"If I ever find that posturing Red Sage Riddler, I will kill him, and dedicate his death and sacrifice his wealth to the peaceful rest of the spirit of our poor crafter."
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