> > Where is Elmal by night? Storm Tribe says "in the Underworld" > Why
> he goes there? Is there any myth that explains it? > Is he running of
> the Fire Tribe guys? Has he to take another torch?
>
> I think that as any other deity, Elmal was ultimately overcome by
> chaos and killed.
It's a curious question, as we know that Elmal is one of the very few Survivor Gods, and wasn't killed (fitting in with RW mythology that the Sun is an undying light), but he nevertheless travels into the Underworld every night.
My guess would be that he was forced to flee into the Underworld when he left the Fire Tribe, then rose again when he joined the Storm Tribe, or some other Storm Age explanation for the solar cycle : although one Elmal myth states that Orlanth found Elmal's Torch, that he'd lost, in the Underworld with all of the dead gods, so I'd guess that some portions of Elmal died during the Darkness, but not the god himself.
> Alternatively, in KoDP Elmal is swallowed by a chaos demon, so is
> temporarily obscured, but then (if the heroquester is lucky...)
> emerges again.
There are certainly many such variant myths, certainly.
Julian Lord
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