Elamle

From: Jerome Blondel <bwbfc_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 05:41:31 +0000


Hi,

replying to Peter Metcalfe

[no magic from Elamle-ata]

What kind of magic do you have in mind for Elamle-ata?

>I know what you meant, I just don't see why it should follow that she
>confers no magic and plenty of reasons
>why she should still confer magic. Take for example the
>City of Neimegu. Are we to say that the tears of
>Elamle that are found there are non-magical because
>Elamle gives no magic? Where to the people of Elamle go to in their
>afterlife, if it isn't to Elamle?

Missing Lands says "Elamle-ata vanished forever." It doesn't say the Elamli don't know where she is, but i interpret this as an indication that they can't contact her for magic in their lifetime and ancestors, when contacted, say they haven't seen her. Indeed there are plenty of arguments against this but here's a go at it. (Ok, there's something special about the tears, i should have thought of it before.)

Elamle-ata the daughter-lover of Kanawa is in Sharzu, where the Elamli go during their religious ceremonies. For lack of a better argument, i'd say that when they try to approach her, they are magically transported to the exact moment when she leaves the city for her Migration. They can't go with her, because all the people who were with her then are dead or transformed into Triolini or fish. If they want to re-enact parts of the Migration, they must go and search for her with Miirdek. Actually, maybe it's like an adulthood rite: re-enacting the local founder's migration in controlled conditions, and taking the Oath in the end.

As taking the Oath is "magic from Elamle-ata", possibly they meet her then, and see her vanish forever. Now, when she vanishes she leaves a token that symbolizes their Oath. The token is a seed (or maybe a tear that changes into a seed when they're back into the mundane world). The seed grows into a different kind of plant which has different applications according to the local subculture.

Yes it's magic. But not in the sense i wish it weren't ;-)

I think that in the past the seed was just planted in the woods and they let it grow. It bore fruit when the person died and the fruit went with the dead on their funeral boat. Eternal friendship/kinship with the forest, even when you leave it forever and go to the afterlife, is the gift of Elamle-ata.

Later, the powers of the seed were instrumental in boosting the human's growth magic so that the forest didn't perish, and the Oath was thus preserved. The humans adopted the practice of integrating Elamle-ata's seed to themselves.

In Bayahote, Elamle-ata gives two seeds that are planted in your stumps by the Limmer once you sever your arm and leg (the elves have extra non-Elamle seeds for foreigners). When a native Bayahoti has done this the elves allow her to integrate some elf spirits of growth. The Elamli don't usually integrate spirits and there are taboos in return.

Neimengu is so special because Elamle-ata weeps real tears every Sacred Time. Her Portrait is in a Garden tended by Eron elf cultists. When Elamle-ata weeps, the elves collect the tears in great pump and give them back to the sea where Elamle-ata came from. There a marvelous underwater garden has grown, that's tended by sea elves.

The elves and humans of Neimengu draw a connection between Elamle and Eron, that's why the people here are called the Elamle Arroin (maybe should say Elamle Eron). The Elamle Arroin know the secrets of the elf spirit Eron: the embyli required them to worship him so they could use his growing and healing magic for mutual profit. Violence is seen as a bad thing, not because of Eron himself but because of his supposed connection with Elamle-ata.

The Elamle Arroin have different initiation rites for each caste, though they all take the Oath in the end. I've no idea for that seed stuff because i just thought it up.

Afterlife: Probably buried at sea like the Thinokans. The part of the dead person that grew out of Elamle-ata's seed is symbolized by a fruit in the last voyage. The afterlife voyage is likely a reverse Migration. They must pass some tests. A variety of demons are encountered: they must be escaped (classic, no problem if the family and friends give proper support from where they are). The dead eventually go underwater and find the Sunken City of Dakaputlo Elamle, which is barred from all living people. There they meet King Kanawa who asks about his daughter. They must give him the fruit. He then allows them to leave the city (a nasty Babylon for the Elamle folk) and they get to the Land of Sharzu in a burst of light, singing birds and free food, and all their already dead family and friends greet them. Miirdek is king there. Important ancestors can go back from there and visit their people.

People who did bad things during their lifetime are probably taken by the demons they encounter and go to Debadai.

[worship no entities from outside the Oath]

>I don't think this is feasible. They have to worship
>Dormal to be great sailors and I don't consider the
>elves being at all interested in what deities the
>Elamli worship.

Yup, that's true. Why not say they adopted Dormal and other cults when the sea openened?

>>In Missing Lands, the Elamlite cities seem to abide by
>>different versions of the Oath.
>
>Or perhaps they abide by the same oath but settle their
>obligations in different ways?

Yes, of course. The Oath is the same, the obligations are different for each people.

>So the Bilini are flawed because they are unable to do
>away with Dorastor? Are the Praxians flawed because
>they haven't been able to make the Wastelands grow again?

The Oasis people of Prax (an example of fundamentally flawed guys) are supposed to awake but they don't know yet.

IMO the Elamli have to change their ways, but it's far less radical. They need new insights to muster their strength against the Mom, and it's my opinion that the new insights have to do with the way the Oath is applied: renounce part of the Great Blessings the current situation brings them, that all converge to something that somewhat hinders them since it involves becoming part-plants.

>Why is the concept of "world improvement" so important to understanding
>Elmali?

It's not specific of Elamle. Other cultures have it: the Lunars, the Loskalmites, etc. The Oath of Elamle itself has concurred to world improvement since its creation. The Elamli have to discover something that will make this "more possible". Like Siglat's revelation or Argrath changing the Orlanthi's ways.

>If you mean that the Elamli cannot change, I don't think this follows: they
>have survived the Elf Empire, the Closing, the Mother of Monsters and the
>Opening.

Sure they can change &#8211; i'd even say change is the essence of "world improvement". Just that they will have to change once more. Frx, at the opening they may have changed their religion to include Dormal. You suggested they gave up kings under the elf empire, and i think they changed when it withered. They became a lot more warlike when the Mother of Monsters appeared IMO, out of necessity.

Idols in Elamle

>>In Elamle, Aldrya is the Great Tree High Goddess. Only the embyli know
>>about her and can hear her Song, for she's simply too big for humans to
>>deal with.
>
>Humans can worship Aldrya even if they can't hear her song. They
>just understand her as a big spirit (Glorantha: Intro p84).

Ouch. For me p84 is "Le Royaume de Seshnela". Which section is it?

Surely the Elamli don't worship her though, because she's so big.

>Why doesn't the idol to do magic for them instead of just interceding
>with forest spirits?

No objection so why not? I'll have a look at the Guardian Beings article.

>I do think they have a class of magician that both make and
>sacrifice to Idols (being the equivalent of an orlanthi
>God-talker).

Yes, it looks fun. But is that theistic sacrifice? Also, if the magicians make Idols, do other people experience the Otherworld when they receive the idol?

Cheers,
Jerome



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