: An interesting thing occurred to me while discussing an
: upcoming project. The Griffons were planned to be
: included in Myth 1 as airborn allies of the fir'Bolg
: who rarely interfered in the affairs of
: ground-dwellers. So they live in the air, and are
: friends of the fir'Bolg. Now, who are the enemies of
: the fir'Bolg? The bre'Unor, of course. And where does
: their god live? In the air!
: Any thoughts on this connetion? Have the Griffons always
: been enemies of b'Y'laggo, and since the fir'Bolg
: became enemies of his followers, they allied? Or have
: the Griffons always followed the fir'Bolg, and their
: entrance into bre'Unor territory started the conflict
: between them? Or are the Griffons really allies of the
: air-god b'Y'laggo, doublecrossing their fir'Bolg
: 'friends'?
I don't think b'Y'laggo really is a god of the air. True, the bre'Unor believe it resides in the air. But the bre'Unor believe a lot of stuff. For instance, they think they can strengthen b'Y'laggo with sacrifices, and so far that's gotten them jack; the fir'Bolg have only strengthened their hold. It looks to me like b'Y'laggo is essentially a bodiless mind; its only known powers are telepathic communication and the command of animals. Faced with an invisible, immaterial entity outside of their experience, the bre'Unor naturally assumed b'Y'laggo was linked to the only other invisible, immaterial substance they knew of; air.
I'd like to mention a Cthulhu Mythos story by Bertram (not Bertrand) Russell, "The Scourge of B'Moth." It concerns an entity named--you guessed it--B'Moth, an "avatar" of Cthulhu, supposedly linked to the Bible's "Behemoth". It's a crappily-written story, but the point is, B'Moth is supposed to live in the air and manifest as a fog or mist. He's sort of a god of savagery and bestiality (the latter apparently in both senses, actually, although you can't expect a story written in 1929 to get too explicit) and he has the power to control the minds of animals and turn them against humanity. His mission is to destroy civilization (which in 1920s sci-fi usually meant white people) and return humans to the same state as all other creatures, mindlessly killing and being killed. Can we see an inspiration for b'Y'laggo?
--SiliconDream
