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Same God – Different Name, Different Stories

Posted on June 15, 2023

Something people often get tripped up on – many gods have different names and some different stories known to different cultures. Orlanth is called Rebellus Terminus among other names in old Dara Happan writings, but no Third Age Lunar thinks that is a different deity from the Orlanth of the hill barbarians.

Yelm is called Yu-Kargzant by the Pentans, but every good Lunar knows the Pentans worship Yelm, otherwise what were Hon-eel’s contests with the Reverand Mother of Horses all about?

Yelmalio used to be called Elmal by the Hendriki, but we now know that Elmal is another name for Yelmalio. Same god, even if there are some different stories.

Lhankor Mhy was called Buserian by the Dara Happans, and the DH word for scribe is still buseri. But even in Raibanth, the scribes recognize that there is one God of Knowledge, not an Orlanthi one and a Dara Happan one.

Sometimes these names identify a local manifestation of a god. Lodril the Volcano God is sometimes called Veskarthan the Volcano God to identify him as the Lodril of the Vent.

The Gloranthan gods are real. If you proceed from that core assumption, then it makes this much easier.

A lot of the confusion is caused by people who just have trouble with the implications of that assumption.

This is sort of the same problem as regnal names. For example, historians refer to an Emperor Xuanzong, but that’s his temple name for after death. His personal name was Li Longji but took the regnal name of Emperor Kaiyuan Shengwen Shenwu. All the same guy of course.

Jeff Richard

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