Re: Re: Death of Orlanth

From: Stephen Tempest <e-g_at_...>
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:18:57 +0100


Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...> writes:

>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.

That's not the impression I got from 'Orlanth Is Dead' at all. Whatever the Lunars thought they were doing, it was *not* recreating the Great Darkness. They were doing something else, that would result in Orlanth either dying or - more likely, I think - becoming chained down and forced into a fixed role in the celestial heirarchy, properly subservient to his betters. Annotated Argrath's Saga talks about him being "imprisoned" when Whitewall fell; and the stagnant air of the Fimbulwinter could be compared to the reign of the Evil Emperor before the birth of Umath.

It was a stroke of genius by Broyan (and/or Kallyr) to realise that if Orlanth was effectively dead, that meant that the current situation could be mythically identified with the Great Darkness. Which in turn meant that all the Orlanthi heroquests and magic relating to the Great Darkness and the Lightbringers' Quest could be applied to their current situation.

In other words, he outmanoeuvred the Lunars by finding and using a myth that they hadn't realised was appropriate.

Stephen

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