Notes on the Black Sun

The Black Sun is a strange one. Its origins are quite old, as I have found handwritten versions of the Basko story from around 1979. It then got infused with Sandy’s love of Herschell Gordon Lewis, with the Wizards of Gore and Blood Feast. Greg added to it alchemical ideas, and what we now have is certainly something at the very edge of Gloranthan cosmology.

But the Black Sun is an important mystical concept – the Shadow of Yelm. The trolls found him on the Fields of Doubt, and those led by Dozaki decided to follow the Black Sun, who became a powerful ally of the trolls. At the Glory of the Black Sun, the Black Sun’s forces crushed Chaos and dismembered Tien. At Winter Win, the Black Sun aided Himile and the Blue Moon trolls to destroy Chaos.

The Black Sun is often associated with strange prophets of the struggles to come. He was later associated with the Solar Storm, sometimes identified with the anti-god Sekever. The Solar Storm came into conflict with Shavaya, the Emperor of Splendor, who finally opened the blinded inner eye of the Solar Storm and brought him to peaceful enlightment.

After this, many strange cults arose in the wake of the Solar Storm, including the Shadow of the Storm, the Suns to Come, the Blood Sun, and more, until the Black Sun returned with a horde of trolls from the Underworld.

The Black Sun last appeared during the Sunstop, when he eclipsed the Sun and then disappeared.

All of the Black Sun stories are garbled, strange, and esoteric. No wonder the land is known as the Kingdom of Ignorance. But still there are some fascinating insights and secrets held by the Black Sun.

The Black Sun can be thought of as the Dark Night of the Soul – spiritual doubt and dryness before greater liberation. The genius is that the trolls actually worship that as a god.

Of course there is a Red Moon / Blood Sun connection there. But interestingly the Blood Sun is not Chaotic. Then again, human-sacrifice loving Hon-eel was not Chaotic.

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