The legend of the Nameless God

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Having just told this to a bunch of Mary, I figure I could copy it here too. This story comes to me from Talentha Quildar, my husband’s sister. It can be told as a serious myth and is part of several clan cosmologies, but a more usual telling is as a kids’ scare story.

In the beginning, as today, there were many gods in this world, but the Amarr God was not yet the most powerful of them all. He was also not called just “God”, but he had a name, just like any other god.

(… sorry, but this is how it goes. Anyway.)

This god, whose name has been forgotten, was a very hungry god. He was hungry for food, and passions, and adventures, just like anyone, but he was also hungry for power, and followers, and space.

So he ate and ate and ate, and grew and grew and grew, in size, and power, and glory. But his hunger could not be satisfied. So in the end - the full telling has all sorts of stuff here, that he tried to satisfy the hunger - in the end he ate his own name.

And so he became just The God. And still today His hunger for the world is insatiable.

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Well, it’s an interesting myth.

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I think so too. There are multiple origin legends for the Amarr God in Minmatar mythology, and I find myself interested in them. They all seem to have the same basic idea - a god gone mad on power, basically - but varying explanations for how it happened. Often these explanations mesh into whatever other origin stories the clan has - Quildar’s ‘Nameless God of hunger’ fits into their way of emphasizing spirits as aspects of human emotions and experiences (such as kinship, luck, revenge, or indeed hunger). Some SoE cathedrals in Minmatar space - and possibly elsewhere? - tell the story of the God split in half by the cataclysm, and the actual merciful, good aspects of God being hidden behind the Gate. And so forth.

Interestingly, my own clan’s myths talk about the most powerful but evil God and how he must be opposed, but never explain how He became so.

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All built on the same thing: human anger leading people to blame God for the actions of His followers.

God needs no other name. He is God. There are some accounts of other names given in history, and some apostate nations might call Him by other names and attribute to Him other characteristics in a half-remembrance as their spirit desperately seeks His grace again, but there is no other than Him, He who created all things.

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For me, it shows more as a metaphor of religion. Many of these myths are not intended to be taken as literal truths, but as stories that resonate with particular human experiences.

I personally believe that the real message of these myths is that if religion is used for power-games, it becomes corrupted, goes mad, turns evil. The “God” in the stories is not literally a supernatural being - it is just an aspect of human nature, represented as a metaphor.

I am sure I don’t explain this clearly. I am not a scholar of mythology, I am sorry. But for many Sebiestor where I come from, myths are not considered literal truths, but they are still true, in this way.

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The concept of many of Gods within one belief sounds quite amusing. I myself under the multitude of Gods understand the multitude of beliefs.

But if a belief implies there are simultaneously many Gods, it means it is a race of World-builders, who have constructed our Universe all together? Not just one Creator, or one Maker, but many forgers, working together on a common goal - to build the fabric of time and space…

Sounds, actually, quite realistic and… scary. With a race of beings, able to assemble a fabric of time and space, they’re clearly should be capable in disassembling it as well, able to scrape it and start a new just because they don’t like anything. Multitude means some of them could be busy building Universes, while others… destroying them.

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No, you explain it clearly enough. But, intended to be taken metaphorically or not, It is still inappropriate to depict God in such ways.

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Not all gods in the myths are creator-gods.

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For a follower of the Amarr Faith, maybe. I am not one.

I will also clarify that I originally intended to take the telling of this myth out of The Good Word channel, knowing full well it counts as ‘heresy’, but I was encouraged to share it with the channel by a member of PIE Inc.

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Ni-Kunni undergraduates have shared stories with me about a spider which devours light. When it has devoured all of the light in the Universe, the spider will have only itself to consume. After that, nothing will remain.

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Anger? Why would anyone be angry with a venal, spiteful sadist who intentionally inflicts an unending stream of needless calamities upon countless individuals, just to prop up his own ego?

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A popular belief among many Butor Clans, mine included, is that the Amarr god is in fact one of the evil spirits that legends tell us that tried to tempt our people. When the spirits failed, they left to find another people to corrupt, and in turn found the Amarr.

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I am no theologian, I must declare that first.

I have always considered the reason God has no name to simply be that no name could possibly do him justice. He is not a thing to be described, codified, quantified. He just is.

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As far as I understand the problem, absence of the name is caused by God being unique within the religious framework. Humans give names to each other to distinguish ourselves from each other. When the God is one, he does not need a name, he has nobody equal to him. And that’s depicted in different religions. In Wayism we call him The Maker - one who made everything. Achura call him The Creator - one who created everything. Amarr call him The Lord, one who rules over everything.

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It explains why you disconnect comms during pre ops prayers.

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Its one of the reasons, yes.

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Okay, wait. This is interesting. Wrong, but interesting.

So if we’re corrupted by this spirit, what do you propose to do to cleanse that supposed corruption, dare I ask?

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He’s Brutor, so it probably involves items called ‘pain sticks’ or ‘headbutts of cleansing’ or something… :wink:

However, the belief he cites isn’t limited to the Brutor. Tradition teaches us that these spirits tempted the Elders toward violence and avarice, and that the legacy of their poison was the First Great Tribal War. It’s not a huge leap from evil entities who push different groups to attack one another in order to lay claim to everything with ‘you’re better than them’ as a pretext, and the Divine Mandate of the Amarr. If I believed in the spirits as more than abstract ideas, it’s a congruence I could easily see as possible… maybe even likely.

And really, the only justification the Amarr can offer for why their plan to conquer the cluster and force everyone to think like they do is ok, but Sansha Kuvakei’s isn’t… is that the entity none of them has ever seen claims to have created everything. A claim that’s accepted prima facie. Even if this entity exists… would any Amarr accept that claim from anyone else?

But, to return to your question—how to cleanse that corruption—I’d say do it the way we did it.

The first step was rejecting the spirits’ influence, refusing to listen.
The second step—one in which the Brutor were critical—was to be rid of the ancient relics and artifacts through which the spirits tried to influence us.
The third is the hardest part: Abandon pride, and embrace peace.

And that is the hardest part. According to the versions I’m most familiar with, even the Brutor didn’t manage it, right off. For all their vigilance and strength in rejecting the spirits, they fell into the trap of pride, and sought to punish en masse those they felt had been most against them. But it was only when the Vherokior, standing apart from the conflict, brought all sides to the table to seek peace, that we were truly able to leave that poison behind.

So, yeah. That’s my recommendations: Reject temptation, rid yourself of the material objects through which the evil attempts to ‘instruct’ you, be humble, and seek peace.

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Don’t know what he suggests, but there’s a ritual renunciation in my parts of the world, repeated at New Year and certain formal occasions, preserved from times of Darkness.

We formally acknowledge that the Evil God exists (“there are many gods in this world, and the Amarr God is the most powerful of them all”) but refuse to follow him (“power does not equal goodness, might does not make right”). We then establish ourselves as member of the clan & tribe and look to our ancestors to watch over us “today, and on the day of my death” so that we may escape that which is Evil.

I am sure someone could guide you to find a similar ritual for your own people.

Alternatively, we could of course just destroy you.

Your call.

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I appreciate the thorough explanations from both of you. As I said, I don’t accept the idea, but it is interesting.

As for how to cleanse it.
For now, keep shooting at me, Captain Rhiannon.

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