So, earlier, with
my observations on Cor-Dum (and I've no idea whether to use "Cor-Dum" or "Gor-Dum" now) and the being that united and before then
Simon Jester's epiphany on the beastmen that sparked it I think I was a little off, and I want to expand on my thoughts.
I've refined to defining that Old One of the
transformation of nature and, if any narrower than that, of the attempts, and inadvertent consequences, of trying to control its savagery.
Morghur:
As Morghur I think you can sum up to domestication and control over the wilds: Domestic animals turned feral, and the animals of the wild pushed out of their domains to encroach on humanity. In that vein his mutative aura is just that: Mutation and artificial selection, but also the
unwanted consequences of selective breeding. Every tale ever told about bulldogs that can't give birth, or the health problems is just as. So from that it's only natural that his mutation can and does bring unwanted change just as much as wanted.
Kavzar:
I'd earlier said Kavzar, was the taming of man, but I think that one is very wrong. Instead I think the currency of Tylos points the way there:
The Tylosian coins are fairly straightforward. They don't have the date of minting like modern coinage, but you're able to deduce a year for all of them by the date they started being deposited. Most of the golden coins are dedicated to either Myrmidia or a man who appears to be the city's legendary father of the Tilean people, Tyleus. There's also representations of Verena, Morr, and Shallya, as well as a God you don't recognize. From the symbology you'd guess Taal, except you're fairly sure Taal is one of the Northern Gods, and wouldn't have been known to the ancestors of Tilea. There's also some of the Dwarven Ancestor Gods scattered throughout. The silver coins are largely dedicated to temporal rulers, and judging by their turnover either they were elected to a temporary position of power, or Tylosian politics were especially rambunctious. You also see several dedicated to local prestige projects, temples and aqueducts and bridges and lighthouses. In some of the chronologically last coins, the depictions of a grand tower sends a shiver down your spine when you realize what it must be depicting.
I don't think the people and politics of Tylos are it: the politics of Tylos, be they rambunctions or electoral, seems like a precursor to Skaven politics and might tie into They-that-Became-the-Horned-Rat. Instead It's particularly the end of that segment I focus on. I think it's noteworthy that the citizens of Tylos found it important enough to mark the city's transformations in the form of public infrastructure works.
As an aspect of the transformation of nature, Kavzar would be well suited to be the god that builds a city on a swamp (Especially since that god's fall saw that city turn back to swamp once more.) One who drains wetland for building and reroutes the mountain lakes into aqueducts. In him you'd see both the building of a dam and the old village that that sinks beneath the resultant reservoir. He'd be the patron of the The Los Angeles River and also what was done to the Mississippi and other rivers straightened and leveed. He's a god you might invoke to clear a malarial wetland, but don't be surprised when the floodwaters grow too strong or the dams upstream mean silt no longer fertilizes the soil.
Khsar:
Khsar, meanwhile I haven't changed theory on as much, but I think one can expand upon the theme a fair bit more. In that aspect, Khsar is the god of the desert wind, and I suspect of desertification, but it occurs to me that before the fields turned to desert, they first had to be turned into fields. Nehekara is desert
now, but it is also just above the Southlands. In fact those jungles cut off right around Karak Zorn. Perhaps once there were jungles there too.
Perhaps Khsar would also once have been the god of slash and burn agriculture.
We've already noted and theorized that, Gazul's sword would be a
tool in jungle, in the form of a machete. Which feels like it could tie into Gazul cutting away his past: A priest abandoning an old god and jailer to follow rebels and join their cause would be as good a reason as any to throw your past away. That it was Gazul, specifically, who discovered the runes of the Ancestor Gods might well be old divine secrets put to new use.
The Dum:
All together Cor-Dum being the transformation of nature seems like it would certainly fit with the terraforming around Karag Dum. In uniting themes of the themes of ecological consequence, terraforming wouldn't be some weird side power but it's
ultimate conclusion. The turning of an entire world to a form more suited to civilization, or at least to a form civilization had no excuses for.
And Borek called him the
least terrible of the Dawi's old jailers and mentors.
If Cor-Dum is or was a God of Law as much as an Old One, then I feel like that might point to a core idea with them: The Gods of Law aren't the
happy sides of imposed order, but are just as much its negative consequences as its positive ones.
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In other subjects, but sill speaking of transformation, a fun thought while rereading some of the quest romance socials with Johann and thinking about his change on the Dramatis Personae:
Mission: To become the best version of himself.
It's struck me that, while Johann's inflexible magic may make him unsuited to mystical
Chamon and gold College Alchemy, Johann lines up fairly well with real world Alchemy. One of the historical goals of alchemical transformation was not just interacting with the material world, but also using those substances and processes as metaphors for transformation of the self.
In the Gold College's quest for its magnum opus, Johann is his own True Transmutation.
