Sandy's replies to me

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From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Sat 06 Aug 1994 - 16:51:56 EEST


Sandy Petersen in X-RQ-ID: 5452

> Joerg asks: 

>>Can you give many more altruistic deities apart from Chalana Arroy.


> 	Sure. Dormal, Flamal, Storm Bull (who put HIMSELF at risk of
> eternal destruction on behalf of the world), Orlanth (most of whose
> actions since the murder of Yelm have been aimed at helping others --
> his wife, his kin, etc.), Pamalt, Voria, etc.

I don't buy your Storm Bull example. Here we have the berserk who saw red because there was an enemy threatening to beat him. The risk of his own destruction isn't a thing a berserk considers, which is what really makes him so powerful.

Neither the other cases. May I include Malia who cares for the well-being of Thed's children? 

>>Maybe a rhetorical question, but which god of communication did the 
>>Fronelans have before Talor arrived?


> 	Why wouldn't it have been Issaries?

Why would it? Did the Theyalan theist missionaries (I'm not talking about Aldryami awaskeners) reach Fronela before the Second Council was founded? 

>>How long has Issaries been universally accepted? Weren't the God 
>>Learners instrumental in spreading Issaries (and Lhankor Mhy and 
>>Wachaza) far beyond the original region?


> 	Certainly. But the spread started in the First Age, with the
> Theyalan Councils. The God Learners simply accelerated a process
> already begun.

Where to?

> I'm sure Issaries was highly disappointed when the God
> Learners were wiped out. Lhankor Mhy, too, since they were so big on
> knowledge.

A nice view. Don't mention it in the Jonstown Library or in what remains of Slontos, though... 

>>> At the Dawn, I believe that Argan Argar  
>>> was an obscure troll spirit of little importance.
>>Hardly, when the Only Old One was the ruling deity/avatar of
>>Kethaela. 



> 	I don't think the Only Old One was an Argan Argar avatar
> until many years after the Dawn. The First Council had Xiola Umbar
> on it as the troll representative, not Argan Argar. Later on, when
> the Council went to war against the Dara Happans, Xiola Umbar was
> exchanged for Zorak Zoran(!). It was only later, IMO, that Argan
> Argar came to importance as the bestest troll face to display to the
> outside world.

I am not at all sure that the First Council of Dragon Pass was identical with the First Council of Kethaela. The passage in RQ Companion which states that the Dwarf Silver Age Hero of Gemborg and the Only Old One fought hand-to-hand suggests as much to me.

If not Argan Argar, who was the Darkness deity which enslaved Lodril and forced him to build the Palace of Black Glass? By 620 this was firmly Argan Argar (see Jonstown Compendium from Troll Gods).

> Issaries was spread across Genertela during the First Age.

Into Prax, Pent, northern and western Peloria? Into Seshnela? I doubt it.

Into even further away Fronela and Kralorela? Not a real chance, IMO.

> That was hardly obscurity. Xiola Umbar, even now, is not particularly
> "accepted" outside the trolls -- learning that a troll is a Xiola
> Umbar priestess does not guarantee her safety, in the way that a CA
> healer is pretty much protected everywhere. CA was probably spread in
> the First Age, too (though she was already known in Dara Happa, of
> course).

Zorak Zorani eat White Healers like anyone. It would relieve my players to know that a troll priestess was XU and not KL...

--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de

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