Re: Dismembered gods (was Re: Belintar & Nysalor)

From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_...>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:47:16 -0500


At 10:29 PM 2/17/2004 +0000, Jane Williams wrote:
> --- "S. Ben Melhuish" <sben_at_...> wrote:
>
> > Which begs the question: How many dismembered gods
> > are there? .... Anyone I'm missing?
>
>Humakt? Orlanth?
>
>KoS p78, "The Greater Darkness". It sounds as if some
>of the battles got quite nasty.

         It's not clear to me that gods don't get dismembered and recombined as a "regular" (although not common) occurrence. From the Orlanth and Ernalda write-ups it's not always clear to me when a sub-cult is a "chunk" of the god or a separate but related "child." Or a hero who has become close enough to the god to be indistinguishable from the deity in some sense. So getting "dismembered" may not be such a big deal if the being can maintain its identity enough to get (most) of the parts back in (correct) order. Mistakes no doubt happen.

         I believe that Heler was once a much "bigger" god -- a Great God on the scale of Orlanth. The vicissitudes of the Darkness tore him apart, so the god we currently know is much reduced. There may be people out there worshipping other aspects of Heler as separate gods of greater or lesser importance, lost to Heler and his worshippers. A very cunning hero could, of course, find these lost pieces and "introduce" them to each other, recreating Great Heler and raising the fortunes of the Water Tribe in the process. It's probably true of other gods as well -- many hero cults may come from a hero discovering a dismembered bit of the god (knowingly or not) and becoming a path to reintegration rather than discovering a new compatible power.

         So getting broken into bits may not be a big deal for a god or spirit (no idea about saints). For heroes like Belintar, it may be more complicated/less successful. I suppose it depends on how "godlike" he really is....

Peter Larsen

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