Re: Founders as Wyter

From: Jeff <richaje_at_feYAy_bNWFP6fMyLmfK11RQ_Up_YoIHUJ07q6OBUWAXZ0j26iA7dt7rVpUGrinRxMQI2>
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:02:27 -0000


> > The magical guardian Sartar brought back from his Westfaring was his protective deity, what the Romans would have called "genius," although I don't know the Orlanthi name. It would have been worshipped in cult as "Sartar's Protector"; upon Sartar's apotheosis, Sartar's Protector was revealed to be an early manifestation of the Divine Sartar.
>
> This refers to the wrong magic system, but basically something like "awakening your fetch" - another case of two souls (ok, spirits taking that role) for a single body.

We all know the Orlanthi have multiple souls. A guardian might be an awakened soul or awakening that soul might reveal a god or it might even be a case where a god is asked to be that soul. I'll post the story of Lokamayadon and his personal god to the myth of the month later.

> In case of Sartar, who definitely qualifies as a hero receiving worship-like support when he was alive, and who was a Larnsting, I have less problems with the Westfaring as a quest to awaken another soul.

Why would you have any problems with any other hero? Harmast's guardian was his Yinkin-soul made manifest. While alive, one might have give cult worship to his Yinkin-soul and worshipped Harmast himself upon his apotheosis.

> Yawn... thinking like an Orlanthi who was another member of the city ring and as instrumental in bringing forth that wyter (or rather a descendant thereof), I beg to differ in this case.

Then you aren't thinking like an Orlanthi. Sartar showed Jon how to extend his breath over the tribes of his new city; as if he were a king but not the same. Perhaps Manaladra the Priestess played as instrumental a role behind the scenes, but Jon forged the Ring (under Sartar's guidance). His personal god became the guardian of Jonstown, and upon death, Jon was worshipped.

> Otherwise, we will describe the wyter-quest as "our leader is looking for a lost shard of his soul".

That's often an accurate description.

> I have no real problem with this, either, as long as it isn't done posthumously. There ought to be a good reason why this founder is part of that deity (or vice versa).

There usually is a good reason, although it may not be understood in the founder's lifetime.

Orlanthi polytheism is not as neat and tidy as game rules make them appear. Frex, Sartarites recognize at least 200+ different cults within their lands as ways of contacting Orlanth, each with its own stories and myths and names. Each Sartarite has a divine element with which they can achieve henosis with that god - by which they are that god manifest. That divine soul is sometimes thought of as just a component of the person, sometimes an independent entity.

> However, they are obsessed with their achievements and those of their ancestors. It is called boasting.

I'm not sure what that has to do with this, except that Orlanthi are pretty accustomed to claims that Eringulf's breath is a son of Orlanth or that Erlandra was two parts mortal and one part divine. Or that Argath revealed that he was protected by the divine Sartar.

Jeff            

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