The past's mutability and the nature of the gods

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From: Carl Fink (carlf@panix.com)
Date: Sat 06 Jul 1996 - 23:48:08 EEST

scotty@olivia.cedar-rapids.ia.us (Scott Haney):
>
>Someone (I forget whom. Forgive me, this has been a very busy and
>trying fortnight) asked if Sandy's children could, through behavior,
>change him into a raving monster...or if a god's worshippers could change
>their deity into something else.

That was me, although it was "through heroquesting" rather than
"behavior".

>What's the point of this story? It takes a MAJOR, BIG-TIME event to
>alter even a person's personality, let alone a god's. I doubt that
>anyone could deliberately alter a god to behave in a set way. (Note that
>Ragnaglar screwed *himself* up. I have no problems with the gods
>changing themselves.)

I have no problems with others changing the gods, either. For
instance, Orlanth/Umath/Rebellus Terminus certainly changed
Aether/Yelm/The Emperor. The whole stories of Orlanth and the Red
Goddess are about how they changed, for that matter.

What I object to, again, is *retroactive* changes. For instance, it
never bothered me that Snodal's conspiracy "killed" the God of the
Silver Feet (Issaries). It would bother me if this had changed things
so that now there were only Six Lightbringers.
- --
Carl Fink carlf@panix.com madscientist@genie.com
Dueling Modems, Inc. http://www.sfrt.com/sfrt/
"As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet
deserves the highest protection from government intrusion."

- --Federal Appeals Court ruling on the so-called "Decency Act" censoring
the Internet. Full text at http://www.cdt.org/ciec/decision.html

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