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rikalous
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Sep 14 2012, 01:01 AM
Post #1
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Creature of the Deep
- Posts:
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- #6
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- April 6, 2012
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The first four essays can be reached here, since they predate this forum and I don't feel like copying them all. Same thing for these ones, which are about other fanfiction.
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The Averruncus: A Pantheon Remembered Only in Defeat
The mythological figures of Fate Averruncus and his companions are, by most, remarked on only as obstacles for the hero-deity Negi Springfield and his followers. Among those who have made more detailed study of the matter, it is often suggested that Fate's defeat and syncretic shift in allegiance serve as a parable for a more profane and terrestrial process of conquest and assimilation by the Negi-worshiping Akamatsu. Unfortunately, inquiry has thus far stopped at this supposition, failing to follow it to its logical conclusion. Until this essay, there has been no serious scholarship about the Averruncus pantheon in itself, rather than as it relates to the Springfield pantheon.
Fate is generally thought of as Negi's dark opposite, a grim figure with dominion over the earth and stone rather than wind and lightning, attended by his own group of warrior-concubines, who are of course fewer and inferior to the Springfield pantheon. However, this paints an incomplete picture of his true role in the annals of myth and legend. An obscure passage describes an aspect of Fate known as “Awelnks, ” who primarily displayed power over water, rather than the extensive domain over earth he is usually associated with. However, it is not to be taken from this that Awelnks was strictly a water-god in the manner of the Springfieldian Akira, although one of his feats bears a striking resemblance to Akira's most famous ability. Instead, Awelnks seems to have included both the land and the seas in his portfolio, fitting for a deity-chief.
The frequently-dismissed attendants of Fate clearly served as the more minor gods in the pantheon he headed. The most famous is, of course, the shapeshifter Shiori Luna. Although the significance of her kisses is often assumed to be an extension of their prominence and importance in stories in the Springfield Cycle, her almost certain origins as a deity entirely unrelated to him suggest otherwise. It is most likely that she was a love-goddess, and her characteristics display the Averruncus-worshipers' attitude towards that state. Shiori's expressions of physical intimacy allow her to effectively become the person she kisses, in a representation of the way loving someone ideally allows one to understand them perfectly. This stands in sharp contrast to certain other ancient love-goddesses, such as the callous Aphrodite and the outright cruel Ishtar.
While Shiori may be the most well-known of Fate's lesser deities, evidence suggests that Shirabe Brigitte was chief among them on the battlefield. This is at first surprising, considering that her portfolio of music and plant life would not normally be considered particularly martial. However, if one considers the connection between her two domains, it becomes clear. Agriculture was the innovation that enabled the shift between hunter-gatherer societies to what would become civilization as we know it. The surplus food that farming produced allowed the division of labor, which permitted members of a society to specialize in tasks such as music. Shirabe is most properly understood as a goddess of progress and technology, which naturally includes the development of more powerful weapons and militarie.
Koyomi and Tamaki have portfolios less common among the ancients, being the personifications of time and space, respectively. Unlike many such personifications, their names reflect their attributes less directly than simply being named Time and Space. Koyomi's name refers to a system of ritualistically delineating the days in a year, and Tamaki's name is a circular ornament whose unbroken ring shape would have symbolized the universe. Their association with cats and dragons is more opaque, but the ancients often attributed eldritch powers to such ordinary creatures.
Homura, the final member of the pantheon, may have developed in a reverse of the accepted narrative of inclusion of the Averruncus pantheon into the Springfield one. Artistic representations of her bear a remarkable resemblance to those of Anya Cocalova, a minor Springfieldian fire-goddess. She is even depicted in many cases as clad only in flame, mirroring the common practice of depicting the females in the Springfield pantheon in the nude. Furthermore, in the final legendary confrontation between Springfield and Averruncus, Anya is captured and neutralized near the beginning of the saga. This can clearly be understood as a more poetic way of describing the goddess's syncretic absorption and rise to eminence as Homura. The only discrepancy between the two is the contrast between Anya's volatile temperament and Homura's more reserved one. This is no doubt a reflection of the different values of the worshipers of Springfield and Averruncus. While the former pantheon is populated by the extravagantly emotional, the latter is more reserved, especially in the case of its leading member. Anya's tempestuous nature could not survive the transition to a culture which prized emotional control in its gods.
Too often do we allow the winners to write the history books. Too rarely do we allow the defeated the dignity of telling their own stories. We must remember that military weakness or poor luck do not render a culture unworthy of investigation or respect. So it turns out that it's really hard for me to spell Awelnks on the first try. I keep trying to put the k in front of the n.
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EvaUnit01
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Sep 28 2012, 09:30 AM
Post #2
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