Presumably, Yelmic resurrection involves giving up everything you hold valuable, including your individuality ("Becoming one of the Many"). Once your soul is stripped down to its basic core, you must confront yourself and submit to a judgement of your true worth. If you are deserving of Justice, then your enemies will present themselves to you and grovel at your feet automatically. IOW this is the *result* of a successful quest, not a part of the quest itself. You can then self-resurrect, as the ex-enemies prepare a path for you out of Hell.
There seems to be a pattern that Solar heroquests involve surrendering things and giving up your power now in return for presumed greater benefits later. Compare the whole Hill of Gold business. You could say that Orlanthi want instant gratification (me! me! me!), Yelmites are taught to delay and put their trust in the system...
Can Solar priests resurrect others, as opposed to self-resurrection? I'd say that if they can, it would be as part of Yelm's power to order the cosmos and set everything in its proper place. If you can prove that somebody doesn't really belong in Hell, then they can be removed from there (by divine fiat) and assigned to their rightful position.
> My interpretation of KoS had been that asking for and then insisting on
>Sheng was the penultimate example of Argrath's machiavellian (not meant
>pejoratively) willingness to do what ever it took to do whatever it was he
>was trying to accomplish in the end.
I think this was Argrath's "Arkat Moment" - when he changed from being a man of principle, dedicated to overthrowing the Lunar Empire because of its tyranny, to an obsessed hate-filled avenger willing to do anything and ally with anyone in order to destroy the Lunars.
In so doing, he naturally *became* what he once opposed. <Insert Nietzsche quotes about monsters and abysses here>.
Classic example: the Temple of the Reaching Storm. If I interpret this correctly, it would be a focus for Storm magics that are always at maximum strength within a certain radius of the temple. In other words, Argrath has chained Orlanth to permanantly rotate in a fixed, unchanging spiral about one miserable little temple in Saird. Now tell me again how this differs from what the Lunars were trying to do...
Maybe the Argrath that came back from the LBQ wasn't the same one who left... and what *did* happen to him in that Lunar Hell where he found Sheng and Hofstaring Treeleaper? Who else did he meet? What bargains did he have to make?
> This match how I've felt about Arkat and the developments of his myth,
>which that he was probably a decent guy underneath, cursed to evil and
>betrayal by his unique understanding of the greater evil of the betrayer he
>faced.
I'd say he was a decent guy "originally" rather than "underneath" (see above).
But then, Arkat eventually retired from the god-killing business, gave up [some of] his powers, and settled down in a nice quiet little Dark Empire of his own in western Ralios, so there can be a happy ending sometimes...
Stephen
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