[Puck]

First off, I'm not even sure what I want from this thread, escept maybe to jot down some thoughts I finally managed to formulate today while reading something and see if anyone has anything to add. For quite a while I've been having this nagging thought that the Dying God arc seems familiar without being able to put my finger on where from.

Now, let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that SE cleverly used a common mythic theme and stuck it under our noses without even bothering to rename it.

You see, The Dying God (sometimes also The Disappearing God) is a pretty common theme in many mythologies - it's even called that - in which a deity (and in later versions a human hero or a deity of human origin) somehow ends up in the underworld and has to return/be rescued from there, and eventually returns and restores/brings along spititual/phisical fertility/revelation/yaddayadda.

Let's take another moment to appreciate how the Dying God arc turns this myth on its head.

So, we have what's left of Bellurdan. The remains have somehow ended up in the Abyss and manage to catch a ride on a K'Chain machine. Basically, he gets out of the Abyss not by his own means but by highjaking someone else's shit, and what's left of Bellurdan does indeed bring a new boon back to the world above, namely creating the cult of the Dying God (think of good old JC returning from the dead; also Osiris, Attis, Dumuzi/Inanna, Dionysos, Persephone, the list is endless). Except instead of returning victorious, good ol' Bellurdan does a crashlanding, and instead of bringing the so-called boon to the people of his own volition, he gets dragged off to some temple. And instead of the renewal of fertility (think about the strange spotlight the fields with the scarecrows get when Nimander & friends pass through, it does seem out of place at first, but kinda makes sense to me in the context of plants and fertility and stuff), the returnee's rebirth/resurrection brings decay/madness/death to the people of Bastion (already in a bad spot after the end of the Pannion Domin) and vicinity. To add insult to injury, there's the quite obvious kelyk/oil metaphor. So basically, Bellurdan brings back kelyk/oil, which in turn works to destroy whoever lets themselves be ruled by it. Oh, and I can't, for some reason, shake an association with Joseph Campbell's monomyth, where he asserts that sometimes, the hero who's returned from the underworld with a boon for the people becomes the tyrant he initially set out to overcome. If we get really crazy here, along comes Nimander and - with the help of Mommy D (mother goddess) in the guise of Aranatha (maiden figure) - disposes of Bellurdan.

I, for one, find this delightful.

Discuss?

[Abyss]

I've never quite mae up my mind whether Bellurdan was the driving force behind the Dying God, or just a stray chunk of the T3 high mage that was pulled along for the ride.

Reason being everything that the DyG does is so utterly far removed from anything Bellurdan ever did, and Kallor when he confronts him at the temple is so utterly contemptuous that it leaves the suggestion Bellurdan is barely a shade in the whole thing.

[Puck]

You're probably right. My intention in using Bellurdan's name was more in not having to type 'the Dying God' every freaking time.

[worry]

I think it's significant that it's Bellurdan. He is as far as I've surmised a Thelomen with pretty close to pure Thel Akai blood. Maybe he's ancient. It's hard to tell. But his species is of the earth, and are supposed to return to it when they die. The fact that Bellurdan becomes a corruption of the earth, both in terms of the perversion of soil fertility AND kelyk/oil, is pretty apt. And if there's going to be a god for what he represents at this point, he certainly wouldn't hurt for worshipers.

[nacht]

It might be a trope revenge for scorned love. I dont remember this that well, but wasnt he unhappy with Nightchill or something

[Kanese S's]

nacht, on 23 February 2016 - 06:54 PM, said:

It might be a trope revenge for scorned love. I dont remember this that well, but wasnt he unhappy with Nightchill or something

Was he?

He seemed pretty bent out of shape about her death.


Perhaps the chunk of him that coalesces into the Dying God has become poisoned by grief.