Babeester Gor

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 21:10:24 +0000 (GMT)


Julian Lord:

> There is always the possibility of r*p*, but of course that's
> not love. More broadly, it's not *impossible* to have sex
> with a BabsGori, so there just have to be some stories
> about this happening. Babs isn't Gorgorma.

I rather liked the idea raised in Wyrms Footprints/Wyrms Footnotes that "Although young, she is no virgin, for her deeds would be too awful to bear alone. Her husbands or lovers vary, and there are some children as well."

In my opinion, this makes her even more terrible. A goddess who is a maiden and who is sterile, such as Maran Gor, is more easily imagined as part of the Terrible Earths, whereas a goddess who has done such terrible deeds that she has to share the pain and still has to perform the role of Earth Avenger is far more interesting.

> Of course, Babs has had lewd proposals, and there are dead
> gods and castrated and otherwise mutilated ones who can attest
> to the fact.

I always thought of Babeester Gor as using castration in her role as Earth Avenger, in other words using it as a punishment for those who despoil the earth or the innocent rather than castrating anyone who approaches her. Gorgorma is one who would munch away willy-nilly whereas Babeester Gor controlled her powers, sometimes she used them as fertility and sometimes as anti-fertility.

In my opinion, this differentiates Babeester Gor from Maran Gor from Gorgorma. These are three goddesses of the Earth (or of Dust) who hold Death in different ways. Maran Gor is the Virgin Death, Gorgorma is the Wanton Death and Babeester Gor is somewhere in the middle, neither virgin nor wanton. I always saw Gorgorma as being extremely sexually active but extremely deadly, as she would emasculate and consume her lovers. She is clearly no virgin either as the Red Emperor courted her to produce Yara Aranis, and in particular he knew that he could court her.

> But precisely because this is such a strong taboo, I think that it
> has to have been broken once or twice, and if there are any gods
> who can have done so and lived to talk about it, these would
> be Heler and Yinkin, and in a different way Eurmal.

I saw Eurmal as a friend and confidante rather than as a lover. He calmed her down from her rage and created the Blood Beer for her. Of course, he could have taken advantage of her state, but I would rather think he didn't, which is quite unusual for Eurmal.

> And precisely because she castrates men who approach her
> means that she is sexually attractive, and has hidden
> fertility powers.
>
> But I definitely agree with Greg that this is a matter for
> YGMV and individual stories, probably with an unhappy
> ending as Peter suggests.
>
> But the motifs are implicitly there ...

Perhaps they were explicitly there until the world of Glorantha was changed.

Simon



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