Vision of the Many Sun-burned Peters

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 15:13:04 -0700 (PDT)


Peter Metcalfe, responding to Peter Larsen:
> >If Yelm is the Sun, all other sun gods depend from
> >him, which they don't seem to.
>
> It depends on what you mean by this. If you mean
> that solar worshippers all over the world _must_
> recognize that the greatest Sun God is Yelm of Dara
> Happa then such is not the case. It merely means
> that the solar worshippers must recognize a solar
> deity greater than their own as being the Great God,
> _if_ their own god is not Yelm under another name.
>
> Teshnos (I boobooed this before) worships the Sun by
> the name of Somash, Lodril by the name of Solf and
> Shargash by the name of Tolat (They also know
> Dayzatar as Zitro Argon but he's a mystical entity
> rather than a Great God).
>
> The Teshnans do not acknowledge that Somash is
> inferior to Yelm of Dara Happa etc, because they
> know that Somash is the Great God. If confronted by
> the example of Yelm, they will conclude that Yelm is
> really Somash in disguise or that it is a perverted
> worship of Somash. If confronted by the example of
> Elmal, they will conclude that he is a lesser god of
> light but deny that he and Somash are equivalent.
>
> If there were worshippers of a Lesser Sun God in and
> around Teshnos (perhaps among the Yellow Elves),
they
> will acknowledge their god's inferiority to Somash
> but will have some valid reason for not worshipping
> Somash.

Wow. I can't see this. It is contrary to human psychology (let alone Aldryami) to recognize any person's culture as better than your own, absent forcible proof. Frex, I think the Yellow Elves would tell any Somash or Yelm worshippers that Halamalao is the sun and if you don't like it, you can eat arrow. The proof then becomes a military matter.

When you do prove it, it tends to create enormous power behind explanation or expiation. E.g., the "proof" that European culture of the 19th century was "superior" to Chinese culture by way of gunpowder, warships, and mass production leading to [dredges through clouded memory of Chinese history class] the Boxers and white lotus rebellions [?].

> Worshipping Yelm leads to greater solar powers than
> any other god simply because Yelm is the theistic
> sun. That many cultures do worship lesser sun gods
> is not because they have an inferior method of
> worshipping Yelm but because they are actually
> worshipping a lesser sun god with an independent
> existence from Yelm.
>
> The Orlanthi do not worship Yelm because Yelm's
> worship requires modes of thought and behaviour
> that are contrary to Orlanth's virtues, the basis
> of their society. The worship of Elmal requires
> modes of thought and behaviour that are compatible
> with Orlanthi society and thus the Orlanthi have no
> problem in worshipping him.
>
> If there was another Lesser Sun God capable of
> existing within Orlanthi society then they could
> also worship him.

This I agree with. But I would not agree that it is a good example (not that Peter was using it as one) of the principle that people worshipping lesser gods of a rune will acknowledge that they are lesser gods. With Elmal, you have a myth about how Elmal used to serve the Evil Emperor. A servant is always inferior in some sense.

As an alternative example (one that helps prove my point, of course), consider Orlanth and Storm Bull for a Praxian. No Praxian is going to agree that Storm Bull has a lesser storm compared to his Little Brother. (And yes, I do recognize that you are arguing that the great gods are the ultimate _theistic_ expression of the runes they hold and the Praxians are _animists_, but I do not (yet?) see how that makes a difference.)

Chris Lemens



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