Ryan, responding to Richard:
> >If we rule out the Chaotic possibilities (like Wakboth), "The Destroyer of
> >Worlds" sounds more like a title for Shargash (or Zorak Zoran?) than Humakt
>
> I agree. Humakt is the Separator, not the Destroyer. He is the guardian of
>the
>
> gate between worlds, and opposes those who through undeath seek to sit on the
> fence forever, or through resurrection seek to sneak out the back door.
According to his own myths, Humakt's last act in the Darkness was to kill the
everything.* Assuming that "everything" included at least the three otherworlds
that we know,** wouldn't he be "Destroyer of Worlds"? At least in the sense of
"to save X, I had to destroy it"?
- Actually, I think that was his second-to-last act. His last act would have to
have been suicide. Which is kind of an interesting aside. I would think that
ambitious heroquesters would probably avoid the "Humakt kills everything" quest
if it ends with suicide. But Arkat (the exception to every rule) might have used
that very quest as his mythic crossing to the quest in which he was reborn as a
troll, since that rebirth quest involves the quester's mythic death.
- Humakt's deepest power is separation. When exercised against a person, he
separates the material body from the immaterial soul. I wonder if the material
world, sky world, and underworld are the material parts, separated from the
animist, theist, and sorcerous otherworlds (not that I see any correspondence
between material and animist, though). Or perhaps the tiny grains of the
otherworlds that, when mixed, make the material world are the pieces that Humakt
separated from them. I bet there are at least Humakti who believe exactly this.
But they are crazed fanatics, so who listens to them? Get back to plowing!
Chris