The Oba Myth

[reanjr]

I've fleshed out the myth of the Oba of Gulg. I present it here as a myth and then an analysis on it's passages. I'm looking for ways to make it more polished if anyone has any ideas.

Athas was not always dying. There was a period long ago called the Green Age, when a small, comforting, yellow sun rested atop a cerulean sky. Athas was young and lush and rivers of water flowed through it’s valleys, while forests and green grass covered the mountains and flatlands. In this time, the pale, yellow sun gave life instead of burning it away.

During Athas’s Green Age, life was so abundant that it sprang unwilled from the world. Many beasts, people, and plants were birthed in this time. Beasts great and terrible, peoples noble and savage, plants tall and stout. But before all, the first to spring forth was the golor’ndale, a beast of great ferocity and power. It is said the golor’ndale’s mandibled head was covered in chitinous plates, it’s tail in scales like a serpent, with feathered wings. It’s body was covered in coarse fur, it’s underbelly bristling with teats.

It was not long before the golor’ndale began to birth more life, each different than the last. A few progeny became dozens. Dozens became hundreds. Hundreds became thousands. When she could nurse no more, she fell into a deep sleep, continuing to suckle her children while she slumbered. While she slept, her sons and daughters developed into the strong, swift, beautiful creatures that litter the Tablelands today. And these then birthed more of their own kind, populating Green Athas from one end to the other.

This great abundance did not go unnoticed. Spirits from beyond the Gray looked upon Athas with jealousy. They began coming to our world, a few at first; then in hordes. They found the great and the terrible, they found the noble and the savage, they found the tall and the stout; the spirits began to whisper lies to them. They told them of other places, beyond the Gray. Places more fantastic and wondrous than any on Athas. The children of Athas trusted their deceivers, allowing the spirits to possess them in exchange for knowledge.

None fell to the corruption of these spirits more quickly or as with as much zeal as the halflings. The spirits shared much with their close allies, teaching them to bend and twist life to their own designs, to make mockery of the golor’ndale’s children. While the great beast mother slept, the halflings began sneaking their abominations into the great mother’s lair to suckle.

For a time, the machinations of the spirits and the halflings went unnoticed. It was not long before the golor’ndale began to waste away, sucked dry by the abominations. The great beast mother knew instinctively when her progeny neared such numbers as she could not nurture. And so she slept. And when the halfling’s abominations began to nurse, the golor’ndale could provide for her children and herself no longer. Slowly the world began to die. And the great beast mother slept.

Not far from where the golor’ndale slumbered in her lair, stood a great afafari tree called the obata. The obata was tall and strong, having been one of the first of the children of Athas to come into existence. She cared deeply for her mother and so rooted herself near to where the golor’ndale slept. And within the obata’s womb rested her own daughter, the oba. The oba was one of the most beautiful of creature’s to spring forth from Green Athas. She was contented with living in her mother’s womb her whole life. She had no need or wont, but for the love of the obata and the closeness of the golor’ndale.

From her vantage, the oba was witness to the halflings and their abominations, but she did not at first understand. But she was the first to notice the wasting sickness coming over the golor’ndale. The oba became very concerned for her grandmother. In time, she began to understand the corruption in the halflings. She saw the abominations did not share in the great beast mother’s life, but stole from it. And it was the oba who first understood Athas was dying because of the halfling’s transgressions.

No longer content to reside in her mother’s womb, the oba sprang forth into the world for the first time. She squinted her eyes at the yellow sun shining through the agafari branches and felt the waters of the rivers between her toes. She at once became more powerful in the sun’s giving rays, more beautiful, but melancholy for the corruption of Athas. The oba was a great and terrible force; she was the only daughter to the obata, one of the first children of Athas. As the oba stormed through the forest in what would become a great hunt, she cursed the spirits and their halfling thralls.

The spirits could not stand before the wrath of the oba. Even in large groups, the spirits were no match for her. Most went into hiding in the deepest, most remote places of Athas. Many perished before the oba’s wrath, or were imprisoned, tortured, and executed. A few would bend to the oba’s will and become her slaves. But even in her magnificence, the oba could not eradicate them all. There were too many spirits and they were skilled at hiding, at running, at spreading lies.

The oba called upon her brothers and sisters to join her in cleansing Athas. But the spirits were insidious. Most of her brothers and sisters had fallen into depravity and corruption, deluded and misled by the spirits’ lies. There were some who heeded her call, though.

First came word from the mekillots to the east. The mekillots had always been fickle, but they would make powerful allies against the halflings. The spirits had great difficulty influencing the unruly beasts. The oba sent a missive to the mekillots, telling them wait and to prepare for war. The mekillots pledged their loyalty to the golor’ndale and to the oba and told her of a great army of spirits and halflings massing beyond their lands. The oba knew the time for war was near, but she needed more allies before she could meet them on the battlefield.

As the oba contemplated where to turn next, she was met by her sister Hesper. Hesper was of greater stature than the oba, but was less cunning and less beautiful. Hesper could use her giant feathered wings to fly through the sky and perceive all that happened beneath her. The oba was met her sister with pleasure. Her keen eyes would be useful to her in the coming battle.

Finally came the kreen, traveling in great numbers out of the hinterlands. This was the last time the kreen were ever united as one, their army arriving in wave after wave. The kreen traveled great distance over vast tracts of land. Their ways brought them over many routes. They brought word of all that was happening between the lair of the great beast mother and the hinterlands. Their tidings were dark. Most of the Tablelands had fallen into chaos. No others would answer the oba’s call.

Drawing upon all of her considerable wisdom and power, the oba tried to wake the great beast mother. The oba poked and prodded and screamed at her mother’s mother to awaken, but the great beast mother slumbered. She tried directing sunlight into the lair, but the great beast mother slumbered. Finally, she called on the mekillots to send one of their own to her. When the mekillot arrived, the oba thanked the gigantic lizard and then ended it’s life. The oba took a giant piece of shell from the mekillot’s back and stretched the mekillot’s skin over the hollow inside, creating a great drum.

And she began to beat the drum. And the golor’ndale began to stir.

When the great beast mother woke and learned of the spirits’ corruptions, she charged off with fire in her eyes and a taste for blood. The oba sent Hesper to the mekillots to tell them the time for battle was upon them. The oba and the kreen then chased after the great beast mother into the east.

The battle that was fought then on the plains past the mekillot home was bloody and terrible. The spirits and their halfling allies and their corrupted life shapes slew many mekillots, slew many kreen. But the golor’ndale unleashed a terrible fury upon the halflings. She skewered them upon her talons, crushed them underfoot, tore them in half with her mandibles, chewing and tearing and smashing them into the ground. The oba herself took great joy in this great hunt. She darted through the battlefield, destroying the spirits with an uttered word.

Then, in the pitch of battle, the halflings brought forth a weapon of their own creation, more terrible than any atrocity that had befallen Athas before or since. The halflings activated the weapon, training it on the golor’ndale. The terrible weapon wreaked havoc in ways even the halflings didn’t understand. The weapon caused the great beast mother terrible pain and inflicted upon her a fatal wound as their spirit masters had promised the halflings it would. But the weapon did this by corrupting the power of the sun. And so the sun itself was burnt, changing to a dark crimson. This talongalag - darkening of the sun - caused Athas to crack and smolder under the heat of the new crimson orb.

In the end, the battle was hard-fought, and hard-won. And so it was that the great beast mother was slain. The first child of Athas and mother to most of it’s children. Her teats could no longer provide for her children and Athas began turning into the land we know today.

In mourning, the oba retreated back to the obata. She prepared herself to depart from the dying world she once held as beautiful by returning to the Cresecent Forest - one of the last forests of Athas. There she was beseeched by free people, no longer thralls to the spirits. They wished for the oba to stay. They knew some spirits lingered in the remote places, and they knew too that they could not stand against them alone. In her pity, the oba granted them their wish. She would stay watch over the people of her mother’s land.

And you well know where this story leads. The oba became our queen and protector. Since the time of Green Athas, she has been given many names. The Oba of Gulg, the Forest Goddess, Lalali-Puy. It is by her grace the Crescent Forest stands. And through her glory, we live in lands not unlike those found in Green Athas. Lands like nowhere else since on this blasted, dying world.

 

[reanjr]

The Analysis

The myth is a composite of historical fact, political propaganda, metaphor, and natural science. It is probably too muddled in it’s details with too much narrative to identify truths within it alone, but experiences or knowledge may reveal truths within the myth.

First of all, the myth specifically mentions the Green Age of Athas. While the general populace does not put their mind to such things, the Green Age is well known among scholars and other learned individuals. Those same scholars are much less aware of the Blue Age before the Green Age. There is no mention of this time in the myth.

The myth states “life was so abundant that it sprang unwilled from the world”. This is in fact the genesis myth. Life simply springs from nothing - creattion ex nihilo - when the right conditions are present. Athas has no gods and few typical creation myths, but scholars have a rudimentary understanding of evolutionary biology. This knowledge has been incorrectly extrapolated to creation ex nihilo, rather than creation ex materia. Creation ex deo is not a widely held belief on Athas, and is not alluded to in the myth.

The golor’ndale is the one of the most fantastic elements of the myth. This “great beast mother” represents fertility and life as well as displaying protective attributes. But in a more abstract way, she represents evolution itself (“[she] began to birth more life, each different than the last”) as well as ecological responsibility (“[she] knew instinctively when her progeny neared such numbers as she could not nurture”).

The description of the golor’ndale also sheds light on early Athas development. The description begins with her insectoid head, and then follows to her reptilian tail, her avian wings, and - finally - her mammalian body. This is an allegory for the relative geneses of the different branches of life. Namely, the insects came first, followed by the reptiles and birds, to end with the mammals.

The slumber of the golor’ndale speaks to the impassivity of nature. It also speaks to conservation. Once the great beast mother realized Athas was nearing it’s limits of sustainability, “she fell into a deep sleep, continuing to suckle her children while she slumbered.”

The tale then begins to display some of Inenek’s propaganda. It is unlikely she attempted to directly influence the myth, but over time, her misinformation has colored the story. So, the myth presents primal spirits as malevolent beings from another plane of existence (which may be true, but most scholars outside of Gulg and many druids would disagree). That said, there’s probably a confused kernel of truth in the “other places, beyond the Gray... places more fantastic and wondrous than any on Athas”. These could refer to realms in the Astral Sea or the Elemental Chaos.

When the myth describes the spirits corrupting the creatures of Athas, it uses the earlier metaphors used to describe beasts, people, and plants: “the great and the terrible... the noble and the savage... the tall and the stout.” This could simply be Inenek’s propaganda, but also might represent the rise of druidic power. It is true that primal spirits inhabit the beasts and plants of Athas. And it is true that they work closely with the peoples, sharing knowledge.

The propaganda continues when introducing the halflings. While never portrayed as directly culpable, they are presented as too weak or foolish to resists the primal spirits. The myth tells of the primal spirits teaching the halflings lifeshaping. This is almost certainly untrue, but the myth is on the mark in that the halflings manipulated life on a grand scale.

After the halflings and their abominations are introduced, the myth then begins to reconcile the propaganda with history and science by speaking fancifully of the halflings sneaking their abominations in to drink from the golor’ndale’s teat, commencing the gradual death of Athas. It’s possible there is some allusion to the events before the darkening of the sun at the Pristine Tower at the end of the Blue Age when the halflings created the Brown Tide, but it could also just be Inenek blaming the halflings for the destruction caused Rajaat’s Champions. It is certainly true that Athas is on a slow decline, but it’s difficult to find justification to fault the halflings for the events since the darkening of the sun.

The myth then delves directly into the heart of the oba myth. Inenek is presented as noble, beautiful, and maternal. She resides close to the great beast mother, indicating she is close to nature, and understands the cycles of the world and the sustainability limits of the environment. She is also presented as vastly powerful, though is seems this is mostly due to her uncorruptable nature. It might also be said that the protective womb of the obata represents nature’s protection from the malevolent spirits, indicating that giving oneself to nature and working in harmony with the forest can protect the children of Athas from the spirits’ lies. The narrative then links this back in with the struggle between the spirits and Athas, as “the oba was witness to the halflings and their abominations”.

It is noteworthy that the oba “at once became more powerful in the sun’s giving rays.“ During her transformation at the Pristine Tower, Inenek would have received vast power from the sun. This is likely a simple coincidence as the nature of the Champion transformation is unknown to most anyone except the Champions themselves, and it seems unlikely they would divulge any information about the process.

The first act the oba undertakes after leaving her mother’s womb is to begin a hunt. This part of the story reinforces the social constructs Inenek has created for Gulgs. To this day, the Red Moon Hunt initiates Gulgs into a station of nobility, and hunting is held in high regard by all citizens of Gulg. In the same way, the oba’s hunt legitimizes her place as ruler in modern times.

The myth then presents the oba’s preeminence over the spirits. While it is made clear she is unable to root them all out, it is also made clear that toe-to-toe, the primal spirits are no match for Inenek. While this is likely true for most primal spirits, there are certainly powerful spirits for which the statement “even in large groups, the spirits were no match for her“ does not hold. This could be a mixture of propaganda and a bit of truth.

The oba’s allies in the battle - the kreen, the mekillots, and Hesper - are though to illustrate the righteousness of her battle. The oba - a mammal - allies with the insect kreen, the reptile mekillots, and the avian Hesper, indicating all life on Athas is being represented in her army. The reason for the kreen being chosen to represent insects is understandable. They are the most intelligent, civilized, populous insect on Athas and their pack mentality is widely respected among the hunting culture of Gulg. It is less clear why the mekillots are chosen to represent the reptiles. One theory puts forward the idea the mekillots not only represent reptilian life, but also a specific geographic region where the battle took place, namely past the Mekillot Mountains in the east of the Ivory Triangle. If the choice of mekillots is unclear, the choice of Hesper is opaque. She is presented as the oba’s equal, or near to it, but the meaning behind this is unknown. Perhaps she represents the other Champions. Or maybe she is an interloper god, representing some clash of cultures in Gulg. Or maybe she represents the city-state of Nibenay or the Gallard, it’s king. The Nibenese are known for their astronomers and Hesper is still named in the Athasian sky as a constellation. It may even be a mixture of the three, as Gallard is a Champion, and Gulg’s proximity to Nibenay means there may very well have been some mythic bleed.

Drum circles are a prominent part of Gulg culture. It may be that this was influenced by the tale of the mekillot drum the oba uses to wake the slumbering golor’ndale. It seems more likely it was added as part of the narrative at some point as one of many ways the oba tried to wake the great beast mothe. This could have resonated with the Gulgs, making it a permanent fixture on the story. Additionally, it shows the oba’s harsh nature. She calls her allies to send her one of their own and promptly slays it with no remorse or even word to it’s people. In this story at least, the mekillot serves a higher purpose. Inenek herself in reality is much more dangerous to her people and allies than even the mekillot drum passage suggests.

The halfling weapon seems to be an allusion to the Pristine Tower, though the oba myth seems to conflate the Tower’s use to turn back the Brown Tide and it’s use by Rajaat in creating his Champions. From an historic perspective, the use of the weapon represents the end of the Green Age.

The myth then wraps up with the passage about the oba staying behind to protect the people of Gulg. This part of the story is certainly disseminated by the oba as part of her propaganda to maintain her power. It is meant to endear the queen to her subjects, a job for which is has proven most effective.