So, theories on why this information, which would be EXTRAORDINARLY USEFUL to their worshipers and priests, is being kept secret by the gods?
Basically, why does there exist a taboo on magic users looking into gods and miracles?
You all know my theory- it's hiding a vulnerability that was exploited by by Nagash, so now gods know better than to let anyone else learn.
But that's by no means certain. So what are the other reasons the cults care a lot?
- maybe it's just something that originates from the humans, and the priests jealously guarding their social turf. The gods won't actually care in this case.
- maybe it is a mercy, to prevent magic users from driving themselves insane. The gods should be fine with it in this case, as we are taking reasonable precautions.
- maybe it's to preserve agency for the gods: if they could be examined and shown to be powered and shaped by mortal belief, then the mechanisms of how to shape and control gods by changing their followers will be known. Letting the voters pick the politician, rather than the politician pick his voters.
- maybe it's to keep people from knowing that they are fundementally the same type of thing as the chaos gods.
- maybe it is to hide secrets of apotheosis and keep competition for domains low.
- maybe it's to prevent the winds from seeing the gods and developing their own agency by osmosis, assuming that the winds are really lobotomized gods made by the old ones to filter demonstuff from AV.
- maybe it is a hold-over reaction from when the old ones and gods co-existed? I'd imagine the old ones doing a lot of almost-dissection experiments on the gods before they fled, and the gods swore never to be put in that position again?
Any others?
I think we can examine this by looking at the Elves and their relationship to the Gods and the Winds. As well as The Dwarves.
Starting with the Dwarves, because it's straightforward, the Ancestor Gods were explicitly Dwarves and achieved God Ancestor status by accomplishing so much in their lives that every Dwarf is impacted by the echoes of their lives. We saw the fractal pattern of Ranald, and surmise that all Divinity has a similar "fingerprint" pattern. If we assume (out of character) that this is a similar process that
any being becomes imprinted upon the Warp, then there's no reason to keep secret the fact the Ancestor Gods were normal dwarves that achieved ascendance as Gods. If any beardling that followed had the ability and will to do such a grand series of achievements for the Dwarves as the Ancestor Gods did, it's likely they'd be venerated as well! Alas, none have been able to match that glorious legacy.
In addition, the Dwarves cannot perceive the Winds of Magic (with only talented Rune Lords having the knack to sense the way realspace is shifted by them as a sort of "negative space windsense"). This precludes the ability for the Dwarves to perceive "Divine Magic" as Magic, but they are well documented for feeling the presence of the Divine as it's channeled through the Runes. This means that although the Dwarves haven't hidden the mundane origins of their Gods, they also have no capability to perceive their magic outside of Runecraft.
Now that we've seen the fractal patterns and incredible intricacy of the Fingerprint of Ranald, we also have a lead on the origins of Runecraft. Each Rune is an immaculately scribed pattern patiently and accurately infused with magical reagents as it's pounded and reinforced into Realspace. Now, we know that the AV acclimates and becomes the Divine Magic of whichever "Pattern" it's exposed to, which confirms the idea that the Runes are Divine Magic as the AV recharges them very quickly.
In addition, that means that each Rune is a piece of the pattern of a Divinity. Now, my initial reaction was to show this to Cython but I think it may be better to show one of the Master Rune Lords. This is, explicitly, not a Rune. It's not a Guild Secret, which means it's not something we should be in trouble (with the Dwarves) for having stumbled into creating. Especially because it's unlikely for the Dwarves to be using a complete pattern of Ranald, although I suspect pieces of it will hold echoes of other Runes.
This makes the discovery of Runecraft/DivineMagic and the Glittering Realm
very interesting. Who was the Priest of Gazul we talked to? If
any of Dwarven Society has
this particular secret it'd be the Cult of Gazul. The Glittering Realm would be a region of the Warp that the Ancestor Gods have carved out and fortified in the same manner that they carved and fortified the first Holds. A very literal repetition of the part of the pattern in which the Ancestors founded Holds that were Safe for the Dawi in a world that would otherwise reject and tear them apart.
Anyway. That'd be the reason for the Dwarves to not muck about with any flimflammery about the mortal origins of their Gods. They cannot perceive the Winds, and inherited a legacy that allows gifted Dawi to replicate pieces of the patterns of Divinity in order to channel Divine Magic through them in a safe manner. There's no risk of any committing Apotheosis without absolutely, unquestionably deserving it. Therefore, they're very obvious and literal with the mysteries of Divinity.
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The Elves refuse to nail down whether their Gods are metaphors or actual literal ancestors of theirs. Because they can not only perceive the winds, but also advance in Mastery enough to work High Magic to their will, I suspect that the Elves aren't sure if the God-Patterns they know
were mortals at one point or are simply patterns given personification by the attentions of the Elves. If it's the latter, their smug confidence in declaring human pantheons as nothing more than different/distorted variations of their own Gods would make sense. They know the Patterns exist, and have personified them, and perhaps the Humans have recognized these patterns but given them the trappings of Humans.
This is where Elven Smugness gets in their way, because they don't know the extent or depth of the Human Pantheons in a similar way that Cython had simply assumed that they knew the right of it.
We can see with the addition of Ulric that their pantheon (at least for these Wood Elves) is fairly flexible. I expect that's because they see Ulric as a Divine Pattern that may or may not overlap with the Patterns of known Elven Gods, but the specific personification of Ulric is useful and so he can be included as a valid God-Pattern to worship. Like one of Kurnous' own "hounds".
Therefore the Elves would consider this sort of knowledge not only out of the reach of Humans, but incomprehensible to those that cannot perceive/manipulate the High Magic that these beings assert their Patterns over. This would explain why the Elves tolerate some truly miserable Patterns within their Pantheon, and the mastery required for Apotheosis in addition to the raw power involved, and the diplomatic or military skill involved, basically the only Elf recorded as a mortal that could have / may have achieved it is Caledor Dragontamer the mage who made the Vortex.
Where the Dwarves would easily achieve unity if someone deserved Ancestor God status, the Elves are so divided they have three factions
from their own failings rather than one splintered faction which encountered a Pattern that quickly dominated the doomed Runesmiths in the absence of the Ancestor Gods' Power during that fateful Storm of Chaos. Elves
are known to adopt Avatar status, best exemplified by the recurring Isha Pattern that inhabits the Everqueen, as well as the cyclical entity Orion and his Isha-Avatar-Queen Ariel. This could hypothetically explain the Lady of the Lake as an additional Avatar of the Isha-Pattern, or a Pattern that includes much of the Isha-Pattern if not the same God-Pattern.
Honestly, the Elves simply think very little of the Humans overall. They're doing their own things, generally staying uninvolved, and we've no knowledge of how taboo this subject is within the Elven Realms because this is the first we've heard of something like this.
I think an alternate explanation in which they
think they understand Divinity but in a different cultural manner than I've described is possible. I think those like the Smiths of Vaul would understand the gist of what we're saying though.
Whether or not that'd be a capital punishment is up in the air.
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The last time Humans understood the deep patterns was Nehekara, and Nagash ruined it all by using Dhar mixed with Divine Magic to create Necromancy (with his eventual God-Form at the head, usurping the Divinity that allowed him to do this). I wouldn't actually discount The Great Horned Rat as the Divinity that worked with him either. After all, it was Clan Eshin that supplied the warpstone blade that would ruin Nagashs' ritual. The Great Horned Rat could have been a God of Nehek, which wanted the knowledge of Dhar to create perfectly loyal servants despite his Pantheonic Pattern of disloyalty, betrayal, usurpation and sneaking. Great Horned Rat migrates north from Nehek the same way Vlad and "The Crown Of Sorcery" imprinted with the Pattern of Nagash migrated. Great Horned Rat builds the Tower and Bell, creates the Skaven in Skavenblight, and the rest is history.
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The Lizardmen attempt to follow "The Great Plan" but only the Slann can perceive "The Great Plan" while Skink Priests must attempt to piece it together from tablets left behind from when the Old Ones (as in, the Old Ones of 40K that transcended their physical forms to become Warp Entities and are the ones behind the terraforming project and "Plan" for Mallus) were still here. Something ended up wrecking them and sundering the Gates, but the physical Slann and the Lizardmen in general remained on Mallus, now without the Patterns that masterminded "The Plan".
For whatever reason, the Old Ones (who are, as mentioned, Warp Entities that are apotheosized mortals) created the Elves (Eldar) and Humans (humans) and Ogres (loosely speaking they're like perfected Ogrin). Greenskins were already here, or arrived during the initial terraforming. Fimir are an original inhabitant of Mallus. Sky Giants are an interesting bunch, as are the Imperial Dragons of Grand Cathay. The Patterns which existed in Kislev already existed.
We don't know the reason the Old Ones that terraformed Mallus made this attempt, and we don't know how the Divine Patterns of The Old Ones can still be invoked by the Lizardmen if the Old Ones' in charge of Mallus died or fled during the sundering of the Gates. Theories abound, but my personal hypothesis would be that Mallus (regardless of why the Old Ones were there to begin with)
became an attempt to create a sanctuary of localized Warp that was "stable" and "safe" for The Old Ones while shutting out the general Chaotic Calamity that is the Warp post-war-in-heaven. The Birth of Slaanesh shocks the Gates and they fall, forcing the Old Ones to flee or getting them killed or tying them up with holding the Gates for as long as they can in a way that precludes them from being able to communicate much with the Slann (who would, if this theory is true, generally be assisting their Old Ones with their comparatively meager might as it's the only thing keeping the whole planet from getting sucked into The Warp)
Anyway. They're all tied up and can't guide their servants, much less enlighten the experiments that were here that mostly fight the same enemy but occasionally assist the enemy.
Because the Old Ones are themselves apotheosized mortal beings, it's possible also that they were doing experiments in Apotheosizing new mortals into the Warp pool to try and better hold the line. If so, they seem to be
mostly helping in the fight against greater Chaos. I'm just pretty certain that Greater Chaos doesn't give a shit about Mallus as anything but an amusing ball of suffering in the same vein as the Dwarfhold we saved. Especially if this is in the relatively-recent aftermath of Slaanesh's Birth. That would keep them busy for millenia
Which I suppose gives us a chance to regain stability in the local.
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In general, we don't know how much overlap exists between Magic Wielders and Divine Casters but we
do know that you
cannot Divine Cast if your soul is altered to one of the Winds. This makes me think that some Humans are able to Divine Cast by pledging their Souls to the specific Divine Pattern that is their patron, while mundane Priests have to
actually pray for their Miracles because. Well. They cannot cast on their own.
If this interpretation is true, then some Priests and Clergy were susceptible to the Winds and they pledged to their Patron.
It would also say that
some Clergy are able to "counterfeit" the Patterns of their Patron in such a way that it's indiscernible from being someone that has their Prayers Answered more often. They avoid "The Curse of Tzeentch" that plagues casters of the 8 Winds because they're channeling a balanced amount of all 8 in the Pattern of their Patron. This knowledge would be
very disruptive to both the Colleges of Magic and the Clergy because. Well. Some people are able to become minor avatars of a Divine Pattern and others can't, and there may be 1 to 1 overlap between those able to channel that sort of Divine Pattern and those able to imprint to a Wind. That'd be very, very disruptive to the Empire. And Norscan Chaos Worshippers already plaster the Patterns of their Patrons everywhere, so maybe they have a loose understanding of it. The Dark Tongue is a pattern that's actively disruptive to hear, after all.
This would be interesting, and explain why Humans are the favored servants of Chaos nowadays. Minor Avatars of your own maliciousness are pretty awesome, especially compared to the random mutts that result from Dhar/Warp exposure (Beastmen) or the Fimir that are their own kind of despicable.
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To wrap this all up, I think the Dwarves and Elves have good examples of not exactly hiding the secrets of Apotheosis from Humans. But also not thinking much of their ability to do so (the Dwarves saw Sigmar and that dude Apotheosized and they said "Well good on you, seems undumgi can be passably good on occasion" so their opinion changed. Thought they're missing the ability to perceive magic so it's unlikely that any but the Cult of Gazul have any knowledge of "The Glittering Realm" and all that it means).
Like. I duno. I don't know how heretical all this will be to the Divine-Patterns that exist, seeing as the crystal might be taking a high-fidelity screenshot of their "DNA" such as it is. Being able to counterfeit or clone the Divine, especially because we can invoke it without devoting our soul to being a minor avatar of that deity, like. Yeah they wouldn't be happy.
But who knows what the races (other than Human Clergy) would think. I suspect that the Runesmiths, if they're unaware, would be fascinated and deeply inspired (insofar as we would be able to allow them to have crystals to regrow Runecraft at an alarming rate). In point of fact, if Morghur is a Pattern-Avatar of a Warp Entity of Mallus, couldn't the Dwarves bind that Pattern and force it to serve?
Oh boy.
This is such a string to pull on. Let's hope we don't unravel
