> The Fimbulwinter is described (by Broyan, and it's
> prety obvious anyway), as a repeat of the Great
> Darkness. So to do it, the Lunars need to do whatever
> caused the Great Darkness. It could be worth a look at
> what *they* think that was, now that we (well, those
> people who've studied Lunar mythology) have more
> information on the subject. In Orlanthi mythology,
> it's
> 1) kill the sun
> 2) Ernalda goes to sleep
> 3) Orlanth goes looking for her
> And those are in causality order, even if
> chronological is meaningless.
Actually, though--at least post-Prince-of-Sartar--I don't think #1 *is* "kill the sun". Elmal, the Sun, is one of the very few gods to live all the way through the Darkness. Orlanth kills the Evil Emperor, the head of the Fire Tribe--but Orlanthi don't believe the EE is the Sun. (I assume the "Evil Emperor = Yelm" association is God-Learnerish?)
Not sure why killing the EE has such horrible repercussions. Perhaps because it's kinstrife--the EE, for all his faults, is Orlanth's uncle. His killing could unleash a cycle of more and more kin-slaying and kinstrife (including the rape of Thed, which helped push her into co-creating the Devil), all of which would weaken and pain Ernalda until she finally died.
So perhaps the Lunar goal was to simply increase the intra-Orlanthi hatred and rivalry, in order to bring on the Darkness? All of the Lunar attempts at coopting some Sartarite tribes could have been part of a deep plan--the goal being not so much to gain allies, as to provoke god-killing divisions and hatred among the Orlanthi.
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