Gods & Divinations (do they really care?)

From: rexabean_at_ozemail.com.au
Date: Wed Oct 4 08:41:01 2000


G'day all,

I can't resist recommending "Jason Cosmo" (a comedic fantasy novel) for a take on just how uninterested Gods really are in the people who worship them (skip brackets if uninterested in lengthy example).

[The hero and the high priestess of Rae (the Sun God) call on her to help protect her capital city against a demon attack. They are rewarded of a vision of the sun as a beautiful woman in a bikini on a banana lounge. Her response to their pleas:

"Oh I am glad you called. I have this spot on my back I just can't reach with the tanning lotion. You look like you are good with your hands, would you mind rubbing some in for me."<Jason dutifully leaps into heaven and does so, whilst trying to explain that hundreds of her faithful worshippers are being shishkebabed by demons from the darkest hells in the streets of Rae City>. Rae City ? I remember that being founded centuries ago. How are things down there...thousands dying..ohhhh that's great ,keep rubbing right there... well that's mortals for you. Do I know you from somewhere? Oh thats right your name was mentioned at the last Gods Committee meeting, something about an apocalypse of age ending proportions. I really must pay more attention to the minutes."

After half an hour of trying to get her back to the point Jason manages to get here interested enough to look down and recognise that her high priestess is actually her great, great...., great granddaughter at which point she declares the attack of the demons "rude, what are they thinking of, attacking my own relatives" steps through and blasts all the demons into dust within seconds. A bit late for the thousands of dead and wounded.]

Now I am not suggesting that Yelm is a blond surfie chick, but surely he has the Universal Cosmic Order to ponder, rather than what Joe Priest number 1 is doing as opposed to number 2. As long as those worship ceremonies keep coming he will let them do what they want. Hence the evil of Gbaji illumination (it hides the fact that the worshipper does not really believe and is only really going through the motions to get the powers).

In fact I think someone posited years ago on the GD that the gods are really in it for the worship (a la Terry Pratchetts "Small Gods"). As long as their existence is being acknowledged they are powerful, stop worshipping them and they fade away. This is all they are really interested in, apart from doing what they have always done (as cemented by Time). Heresy is unimportant except in the minds of the individual worshippers who are only mortal and thus flawed.

Of course when a Lokamayadon comes along and tries to replace Orlanth even the big O eventually notices and start dropping some heavy hints on a certain Harmast Barefoot (who may have been the only tool available, given his was the only initiation ceremony into Orlanth for over a decade).

To me this explains the two Yelm groups "New Light" vs Umbarism (Yelm consorting with Darkness) quite well. Yelm got worship from both and neither tried to diminish him so he was fine with all of them and their ideas.

Cheers, Andrew
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