OK, there's a lot of mythological overlap going on here. To most Heortlings, Humakt is (a) Death personified, (b) Orlanth's sword, AND (c) an independent cult figure with his own mythology, rituals, and secrets. All three things are true.
Thus, it would be perfectly appropriate for an Orlanthi godi to say that Orlanth used Humakt to kill the Evil Emperor. It would also be perfectly appropriate for a Humakti Sword to say that was not Humakt, but Orlanth's misuse of Death. Either or even both could be true. Heroquest to figure it out for yourself.
>No, it doesn't. The myth says the weapon is Terminatus. Nothing
>in the myth says the weapon cannot be Humakt. My position is
>that the Dara Happans now identify Terminatus with Humakt and
>Rebellus Terminus with Orlanth.
I disagree with both of you. I don't think the Dara Happans identify their evil gods with Humakt and Orlanth - I think they do the reverse. They identify Orlanth and Humakt with Terminatus and Rebellus Terminus. This is an important distinction - I doubt that in their own ceremonies, the Dara Happans invoke strange Orlanthi gods (just like the Romans didn't invoke Wotan instead of Mercury). They fit foreign gods into their world-view and not the other way around (although in some cases, the foreign god ends up making the local equivalent a more significant figure - like Rebellus Terminus).
As a result, I suspect the Dara Happans are wildly inconsistent with their identifications. When describing the Orlanthi, sometimes the DHs say that the Orlanthi worship Rebellus Terminus as their chief god, sometimes they say that they call Terminatus "Humakt", sometimes they say that Terminatus is called by the barbarians "Orlanth". And so on. Humakt, Orlanth - what's the difference in Raibanth?
Jeff
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 100
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