Re: Why is Kargzant a Spirit?

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_Uc7CjTOKTD30GCWcTTf_EH-FgT0sBgaZbnRkou8Q8tUj2V4Pbi__Gc5R_j7fwr2fepx>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:18:38 +1300


Nick the Nevermet wrote:

> Gotcha. I knew Kargzant was one of the Rebel Gods who killed
> Murharzarm according to GRoY

He wasn't. Plentonius when writing the GRAY and describing the murder of Murharzarm inserted the names of Gods and Heroes he didn't like. A good example of this is Vinakotal who is better known to the Orlanthi as Vingkot, yet they don't know anything about him being a murderer.

> Yeah, Shargash 'sent him away', which I assume meant that Kargzant
> was killed and sent to the underworld, since Kargzant is sent from
> the underworld by Yelm to collect the shredded remains of the world
> after Shargash destroys it.

That's a Dara Happan presumption. In the Pentan view, Kargzant is the Sun god himself.

> Which for Kargzant was Nivorah for a little while before it was
> destroyed, right? Though I'm not quite clear how Nivorah went from
> being the city of Reladivus to the city of Kargzant, who was hardly a
> power of serenity.

My opinion is that for a long time, Dara Happa was ruled by savage Rinliddi bird-riding barbarians which is remembered in mythology as the reign of Emperor Kestinoros. Eventually the bird barbarians were cast down by the hero Erskanlavus who performed Murharzarm's Muster to summon an army to get them out. This is remembered in the Entekosiad as a myth of King Gartemirus.

Now if you have a look at Murharzarm's muster, you'll see that the help from the NE is Rinliddi, the very people that Erskanlavus wants to get rid of! So what he did was to substitute Pentan horse-riders for the Rinliddi bird-riders (which is why Gartemirus is suprised to see a horse which he's never seen before) since they came from the NE and also hated the bird-riders.

Once the Bird-riders have been ousted, the Dara Happans (under Emperor Manarlavus) settles their new horse-rider friends in ancient Nivorah (now Jillaro) and that is why at the dawn, there are Pentans in Sylila who claim descent from the hero Hyaloring. Some of them migrated even further southwards and became friends with the Berennethtelli.

> Cool, so from the Pentant POV, Yelm tried to make Kargzant into an
> obedient subject, and Kargzant wasn't having it.

 From the Pentan PoV, there is no Yelm. They didn't meet the Dara Happans until well into the Storm Age when the sun was missing in action (fighting monsters in the Underworld). When the sun returned, they knew him as Kargzant and their Dara Happan subjects (for the most part agreed). It was only much later when they started making noises about Antirius and Yelm that the troubles started.

> I wonder how they
> tell the tale about Kargzant vs. Shargash, and whether it would end
> up with Kargzant also going to the underworld.

Kargzant defeated Shargash and ended the Gray Age. Even Plentonius admits this in his book (GRAY p38).

--Peter Metcalfe            

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