Re: A little Elmal question

From: markmohrfield <markmohrfield_at_...>
Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2002 16:35:09 -0000

>
>
> Elmal is THE sun!?
>
> but since when?
> was Yelm the sun, prior to Elmal [if yes, when/how did Elmal got his
> "job"]?
>
> and how about present day Yelm? what's his job at all?
> he should have one, since IIRC he belongs to the "50:50"-sharetime
> compromise [as does Orlanth]...
>
> IMG I always ruled Elmal as the real sun, crossing fingers in the
> hope that no player would ever ask for Yelm's whereabouts.
>
>
> --
>

The following story is my own very unofficial answer to these questions.

"But, uncle, haven't you said that the Evil Emperor is the sun!"
"I did?" 
"Yes! You said that reason Orlanth went on the Lightbringers quest 

was that he killed the sun, who was the Evil Emperor, and he needed to bring it back so that the world would not forever be in darkness!" "So I did. Ah… the truth is that the sun is Elmal's chariot. When Elmal left the the fire tribe, his brothers tried to take back his brilliance. They were foolish and believed that the chariot was his brilliance, so they took it and gave it to the Evil Emperor. But that was not Elmal's true brilliance. Elmal's true brilliance is even more important than the sun, for while we survived for a while without the sun, we could not have survived even the briefest of time without the true brilliance of Elmal, which is loyalty. "When Orlanth returned from hell he offered Elmal his chariot back, but Elmal refused it saying that he had come to love the Storm Tribe too much to leave it for the long periods of time it would take to drive the sun-chariot across the sky. "Instead, give it to the Evil Emporer, and put him in the slave's station of always following the same path every day."
""But what would your own reward be?" asked Orlanth. ""My reward is exactly what I gave you, for Loyalty is bought with Loyalty", and Orlanth gave Elmal the torch that is his loyalty."" "And has the Evil Emperor always stayed on his appointed path, Uncle?" "No. Once he tried to stop in the middle of the sky, which he considered his rightful place. Elmal came and forced him back to his appointed task, but not before this foolishness let a great evil back into the world."
"Why didn't Elmal take back his chariot then?" "The Evil Emperor was given one more chance. If he breaks from his job once more, Elmal will take back his chariot. Some say the coming of the Shepelkirt was the Evil Emperor's doing, and that one day soon Elmal will take the chariot back."