Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Pelor & Pholtus in the Oeridian Pantheon

Fri Sep 09, 2022 4:31 am Pelor & Pholtus in the Oeridian Pantheon

A recent discussion on the CanonFire! Discord worth recording here (The Jason Zavoda Principle):
Eradan — 09/06/2022
Okay, I need to ask: why do people keep referring to Pelor as the "Sun" god of the Oeridian when they already have Pholtus in this role? It makes no sense to me.
Pluffet Smedger — 09/06/2022
Pholtus is not the god of the Sun. He is the great regulator of the heavens, which keeps all the celestial objects, sun, moon, etc on their appointed paths. Which is why he is so rigid. The Sun being the chief body of the heavens of course has pride of place, but the overlap is not so great as it might seem.
As a lesser/intermediate deity, this is more of a duty than an ownership.
Stu of Onnwal — 09/06/2022
Pholtus keeps the trains running, Pelor is the train.
Stu of Onnwal — 09/06/2022
The Oeridians oft refer to Pelor as "Sol" (I guess no-one gave them a 3E PHB to read on the migrations).
Rel Astra is in the Solnor Compact, I suspect there's plenty of scope there for there to be/have been a Sol following.
Pluffet Smedger — 09/06/2022
The Aerdi have always worshipped Sol, the Sun even from their primitive time in the west when their gods largely consisted of forces of nature, sun, moon, winds, weather.
But when they migrated to the Flanaess and encountered the Flan, over the centuries they recognized Pelor as the same power, whom the scholarly among them call Sol Incarnate.
Eradan — 09/06/2022
I always thought that Pholtus being The Blinding Light referred both to his absolute Law and the literal blinding light of the Sun. I can see the second part being slowly taken over by Pelor after the Oeridian tribes enter the Flanaess though
Pluffet Smedger — 09/06/2022
His light is silvery, more metaphorical, than the heat, warmth, and light provided by the sun.
He is more like the steward or shepherd of the sun, moon, and stars. Setting them on their paths.

Sat Sep 10, 2022 4:19 am

I thought of Pelor as a Flan analog to Baldr--insofar as Jacob Grimm's etymology of Baldr really followed from "white" to "shining" to "strong"--and Pholtus as an analog of the "lord of the daylit sky" from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.

Also pelo is "hair" in Spanish and Portuguese (and maybe some other languages) and therefore an opposite of "bald"-er... I dunno.... it seemed like the kind of cheeky game they might have played.

That the Aerdi would have have syncretized Pelor to Sol seems on-brand.

(The place I had looked up Baldr also mentioned a byname for him: Phol. Whoa.)

Thu Oct 06, 2022 6:21 pm

Syncretize. Good word, going in the rolodex.

Mon Oct 31, 2022 1:59 pm

Pluffett's summary essentially comes right out of the World of Greyhawk box set discussion in Vol III, p. 74. I had occasion to look up the original source yesterday during my regular game, as the worship of Pholtus has made an appearance in our game following a recent side adventure in Scant (our game is currently based in Keoland).

From the very beginning, Pholtus is presented as strict, but despite the connection to the Blinding Light Pholtus is not a sun god.

He is a god of Light; it's the first domain in the list. The Sun and Moon motifs relate more to them both being sources of the light that is Pholtus as opposed to Pholtus simply being a god of the Sun and/or Moon.