As learning a Great God's secret is somewhat equivalent to liberation for a mystic, one can also take a look at the eastern myths and see that both liberated deities (Mairnali) and dragons (Daruda) have postponed their liberation in order to help others along. I suggest the same is applicable for mortals who learn the secret of a Great God: they don't disappear but become living examples of worship of the god.
> Note that this type of usurpation of the gods is actually very common in
> the Vithelan pantheon -- when the Sun God achieves full enlightenment and
> passes out of the world, a new being will take his place, so that there
> is always a Sun God, with the same name and powers, even though it has
> been different entities at different times. Similar situation, but part
> of the mythos, so is OK when done properly.
Alex:
>
>If such a thing happens, then by your own account it's not 'usurpation',
>it's caused by the liberation of the 'displaced' entity. And note that
>the term 'enlightenment' is doubly misleading here: firstly, it's
>(normally) a Kralori concept, not a Vithelan one, and secondly, it
>does not remove one from the world, as does liberation.
>
>Those quibbles aside, I shall leave comment on the substance of the
>matter to Nils...
The quibbles sound right, as does the substance of the matter. I believe there can be such succession of deities in charge of material phenomena like the sun. This is how some East Islanders explain the difference they observerd in the sun after the event known to the west as the Dawn.
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