I've been doing some brainstorming about Uz myths, and how they would understand the whole Death (and Lightbringer) story. It seems to me that the basic Heortling version is so incompatible with the Troll outlook that the Uz must have a very different take on the whole God's War.
Probably Joe Uz isn't aware of the contradiction. As far as he's concerned, Yelm Komosha showed up in Wonderhome out of sheer bloody-mindedness; he may not even know that Yelm had died. Probably the common Uz version of the Yelm-Orlanth story is something like this:
Two surface gods had a fight. The storm god kicked the sun god's ass, so the sun god had to leave the surface and came to Wonderhome. The bastard screwed up Wonderhome so much we had to leave. The storm god ended up getting his ass kicked by chaos, and he finally had to come begging for help. Kyger Litor got them all to agree to a compromise, which at least gets the sun god out of Wonderhome once in a while.
But to the educated, culturally-aware Uz, there are a number of questions to answer, such as:
Probably there are lots of different Troll answers to those questions. But here's an attempt at a Subere-centric version, probably hidden knowledge among Subere disciples.
What do people think?
LIFE AND DEATH: Subere's Lore
There is a truth to the world, and an order to the cosmos. And the heart of the truth is this: Everyone, and everything, has its place.
At the beginning, there was Life, and there was Death. There was a place for Life, and there was a place for Death.
Life is Darkness, and the place of Darkness was below, in Wonderhome.
Death is Light, and the place of Light was above, in Hurtplace.
There were gods and men, then as now. They were likewise of Life, and of Death. The gods and men of Life lived below, in Wonderhome. The gods and men of Death lived above, in Hurtplace. And all was well, and all were content. The Death-folk were content in Death, and the Life-folk were content in Life.
This is Chaos: That the lines were crossed, and Death was brought into Life and Life into Death. And this is how it happened.
There was one who was not content among the Death-gods. He had heard that there were those below who were happy in Life, and he envied our happiness, not content with his own. Learn, o my daughter--envy is the doorway for Chaos. You may have heard strangers tell of this god. The storm-folk name him Eurmal, and they do not love him, for they know he destroyed their peace, though they do not understand how it happened.
What happened is this: He went below, and found Life. He wandered into the house of Subere, and found a small piece of Life, and held it in his hand. He brought Life into the place of Death, and that began the end of the world.
He found the First of the Death-Men, whom they now name Grandfather Mortal. He said, See, I have found the source of happiness for those below--I have found their power and their joy! And the Death-man foolishly said, Let me see it, and let me share in it. And so Eurmal gave Life to the man of Death.
This is the horror of the Death-men--that they are of Death by nature, but they were made alive. Being alive, they can die--and being Death, their life cannot endure. And this is the curse upon us: That when they die, they must seek life to be restored, and life can be found only in the Darkness below. And so it was that Grandfather Mortal, first of the Death-men, came to Wonderhome.
The one they call Eurmal did much harm, but he was not strong enough to hold much life. But he told another, kin to the Storm Chief, what he had done, and this other one wished to learn of the power, too. Eurmal had no more life to share with him, so he offered to bring the other one to where the Life was. You have heard of this god, too, my daughter. The storm-folk name him Humakt, and they fear him, and they name him God of Endings, for he ended their world.
Humakt was far stronger than Eurmal, and brought far more Life into the Deathplace. He shared it with his brother, and his brother made our great woe. For his brother, seeking to make himself master of the World of Death, knew that he must cast down the very God of Death himself. And the brother did that, by wounding Death with the Life that is Darkness, and making him a living being. And as Death was made alive, now he could die, and the fire of Death consumed himself. You know their names too, my daughter. The brother is the king of the Storm-folk, and they call him Orlanth. The god of Death is called Yelm by his children, but when he died, he too came to the darkness to seek healing. But he brought Death with him, and drove the Darkness away, so he could not be healed; and thus he found nothing below but a new name, Komosha.
We sought to drive Death away, but we failed. And this was our great sorrow: That Death found a home within us, as Life cursed the folk of Death. We fled to the world of Death, which we could endure now that its god had left it; but wounded by the light of Death, many of us fell, and had to seek through the farthest reaches of the Underworld for any life that might be untouched by the light.
This then was Chaos: That Life ruled in the Deathlands, and Death ruled below; that the living died, and the dead had life, and none were content.
In the end, he whom they called Orlanth repented of his deeds, and sought to bring the Death back above. He went on the Lightbringer's Quest, to bring the Light of Death back to its home, and leave us to ours. And he succeeded to a great extent, and we honor him for that--but he could not succeed entirely, and so we have not forgiven him for his first deeds.
Orlanth came to the house of Subere, and endured life. And Subere gave him the strength to venture to Yelm's fastness below, and bring Subere's healing darkness into the very heart of Death. There, Death was made whole, and healed, and strengthened to go above.
But alas, Orlanth is a death god too, and could not carry enough life to fully heal Yelm. Yelm was made strong enough to return above, but he remained alive, and doomed to die. This, then, was the compromise: Yelm would return to the world of Death, but he is still alive, and thus his own fire slays him. Every night he returns to the underworld to be healed, and restored to life. And every day he returns to his world, only to die again. And he has permitted himself to be weakened, so that when he returns to the underworld, the darkness is able to reach him through his light, and heal him. This is why we can now endure the surface, and venture even in his full light.
And as Yelm is not entirely restored, neither are we. We are still the Folk of Life, but our life must struggle with the Death that surrounds us in every world. While that struggle continues, we are not the Uzuz we were, and Death has a place in us--so we must in the end abandon our bodies and return to the Darkness to be made anew. There are still a few Uzuz from the time of peace, and they alone remain free of the light of Death, for they have the strength to cleanse themselves of every taint--and so it is that they alone can remain in the same body through the ages.
Such is the compromise. We endure death, and they endure life. Each of us must endure the other's world, and must endure the other's presence in our world. It is not the world we were made for, but we can find life in our mixed world, and they can find death in it. Contentedness is no longer a gift freely given, but it can be achieved. And hope remains--the hope that all will be restored, the Death-folk to the purity of Death they long for, and the Life-folk to our true Life below. For Life is strong, and it is the mother and bride of Hope, and it is patient.
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End of Glorantha Digest
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