> >But Humakt is a special case, because he is the god of Separation.
> Humakt's
> >sword is actually a barrier (or a frontier, or a passage, or an
> edge)
> >between the Living World and the World of the Dead, which means that
> >Humakt's presence in both places is unusual.
>
> Hmmm... I think I disagree. Humakt is definitely dead, and I can't
> think of any sense in which he can be said to be alive. he's barred
> from
> personal participation in the world by the Compromise anyway, so it's
> a moot point.
Well, I certainly agree that it's a moot point.
But I don't agree that Humakt is "dead".
Anyway, I don't see why you disagree with the idea that the god of Death is a special case. And I think that it is a well-established Gloranthan fact that Humakt is the Separator. It's even been reprised in ST.
> > ...Unlike the other
> gods,
> >he is in both places all of the time, and doesn't really go through
> the
> >normal cycle of Life/Death as most other gods do.
>
> There are plenty of other gods of hell - most troll gods for example -
> that in much the same possition as Humakt in this respect.
Hm !
The difference is that trolls view the Upper World as the Hurtplace, the Source of all Evil,
I don't believe that the troll gods transcend the Worlds in the same way that Humakt does. I agree that the Uz exist in both the Inner World and the Under Worlld, but I don't see this as being any different from a Human's normal presence in both the Inner World and one or other of the Higher Realms. Apart from the direction, of course.
Humakt OTOH has a presence in both the God world and the Under world, and also exists as the sharp dividing line between the two (IMO).
Not quite the same as your common or garden Uz demon...
> >I don't think so. I think that he is both dead and living at the
> same
> >time. He certainly wasn't resurrected.
>
> I can't see how that could work. How is that different from "Humakt :
> God of the Zombies"?
Both dead and living is the opposite of neither.
> >What he actually did (according to the Sword of Life myths) was
> >to kill Death itself, which is that he separated it from the Middle
> >world and sent it into Hell
>
> It was already in Hell. Surely it was Trickster who brought Death
> into the world?
Yes, but Humakt *IS* Death...
> > ...Also, if he does have a Great Secret
> >(Become One With Death) you would actually have to violate
> >your god and all of his oaths and possibly the Compromise
> >itself to attain it.
>
> His Great Secret is learned by all mortals in the end - the
> experience of Death. It is the awful weight of this knowledge
> that burdens the souls of the dead.
Excellent !
Julian Lord
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #488
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