Orlanth and Ernalda

> > I don't think a culture can accept and remember and
> > record easily/clearly/objectively the
> > death/sleep/absence of the Great God _and_ Goddess
> > at the same time.
>
> Which raises a question in itself. Whitewall falls:
> Orlanth dies: no more wind, air, etc. Fair enough.
>
> But why does this have any effect on Ernalda?
>
> Ernalda isn't dependent on Orlanth. If anything, it's
> the the other way round. He's King of the Gods
> *because* he's married to her.
>
> So never mind Orlanth having wandered off for a bit:
> who killed Ernalda, and how?

I thought that according toOID, Ernalda magic and that of related Earth deities was unaffected by the Windstop.

To quote OID - "She is not dead, she sleeps."

The Fimbulwinter takes place during Sacred Time, so Ernalda technically *is* dead, but dead in the way she's supposed to be. So is Orlanth, but not in the way he usually is during the Lightbringer's quest. The upshot is that if Orlanth stays dead, he won't be able to bring Ernalda back with the onset of spring. While she has many husband-protectors, *only* Orlanth brings her back to the world at the end of the Lightbringer's Quest. Without the return of Orlanth, Fimbulwinter and the Greater Darkness never end.

What the Lunars really do is not kill either of the two gods. Instead, they disrupt the normal cycles that these gods go through, making it so that neither can resurrect themselves, as they normally do every year.

CB

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