Babs and Death

From: Light Castle <light_castle_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:01:00 -0400


On 5 Apr 2005 at 4:00, "Jane Williams" <janewilliams20_at_yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Babs Gor, too, I believe. Qute a lot who held Death for a bit, but don't
> own it.

And I have to admit, the more I think about it, the more I think that Death (transcendent,
utter, important Death) is not a god. Certainly not limited to being a god. It is a fact.
There are gods who have wielded it, and own a piece of it, just as there must be spirits
that do the same. (Is there a Death Spirit? Does it make sense to have one?)

> > OK, I need a refresher on what happened at Castle Blue.
>
> Red Goddess showed up, big fight, proved herself to be a late-arriving
> part of the Compromise.

OK, so that's what I thought it was. I'm not sure what that has to do with Humakt, though.

<Carmanian Hum'Akt>
> Because there's a writeup in which his affinities are Death, Combat, and
> Battle. Not Truth or Honour.

Which touched off most of this anyway. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have come to
the thinking of others that the lack of an affinity doesn't mean lack of a rune. And as
example I throw out Orlanth's aspects not all having an air or storm affinity. (Indeed,
Orlanth Allfather has nothing even arguably storm linked.)

> Er... Which one? I seem to remember coming up with at least two, maybe
> three?

And they are all good. But I was thinknig the Eurmal link in particular. The Death as a
Subset of Separation (at least especially in Theist central continent) seems so obvious
in retrospect that I take it as a given. The Eurmal as his other I am adopting because it
is provocative and interesting.

> And you'll also find a link to "Humakt's Oath"
> http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/swords/Public/oath.htm

Ahh, Not so much creating the gods as severed parts of himself, but as how Death, as a
Mystery and not simply a Power, changes them all. Which I like very much.

> The theory I'm putting in the Earth Tribe one, BTW, is that Babs Gor
> doesn't have Death, and never had. She's got a distorted version of
> Life. The psychological theory then dives headlong into over-18 stuff,
> through sado-masochism and out the other side, to the point that I won't
> be putting it on this list, but I think it makes a weird twisted sort of
> sense.

It does, and I can see what you're hinting at in the story.

What all this has done though, is make me anxious to hear something of the other death
gods. I know very little of the myths about them. Truly Humakt as we know him is the
closest to not only owning death, but Being Death. As has been mentioned, he is sometimes himself called the weapon that is death. (He is Orlanth's sword sometimes,
and that is sometimes literally, one thinks.) So do any of the others have a role like that?

LC


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