LNH20/Meta: Library Lad?

[Andrew Perron]

On Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:30:04 +0000 (UTC), Adrian J. McClure wrote:

> So I realized that I know absolutely nothing about ancient Egyptian
> mythology and religion--and indeed less than nothing, because all I
> know is popular-culture versions.

Woo!  Me too, pretty much. ^^;

> The Ancient Egyptian pantheon in general has a very strong
> hierarchical emphasis. They existed to maintain the precarious balance
> cosmic order and prevent it from slipping into chaos.

Ooooooooooh.

> At the same
> time, the lack of a well-defined body of stories means that we have a
> less clear idea of them, and their portrayals in later fiction are
> much less consistent.

Excellent. <3

> The different gods tend to shift over different
> times and places and flow into each other. (This is actually true of
> the Greek and Norse pantheons as well, but the way most of our
> engagement with these pantheons has been literary rather than
> archaeological means that we focus on that less.)

Not to mention when Hellenic Egypt started fusing Greek and Egyptian
deities, something taken further during the Roman Empire...

> Thoth in particular was a keeper of order and balance, who maintained
> the universe together with his female counterpart or wife Maat. (Maat
> is basically the deified principle of order and justice--much more
> benign than Master Workload.)

...which makes me wonder if he (it?) took her job...

> Later he became associated with writing,
> magic, and science; acting as a record keeper to the gods, judge of
> the dead (which has interesting implications for future LNH20
> storylines)

Indeed!

> This suggests a
> possible reason for the fall of Thoth and his pantheon: someone
> (possibly Nyarlathotep, or whatever he's called in LNH?) stole the
> relevant words from him.

...oooooooh.  STEALING WORDS.  Yes yes yes yes metafiction yes.

> Thoth was also not a particularly protagonistic sort of god. He was
> called, and his role was often to judge the disputes between gods,
> keeping the balance between order and chaos and ensuring that neither
> had the upper hand. He was really more like Watcher or Metron than
> Thor.

*nods* Makes sense.  But then, unlikely protagonists are fun.

> On the other hand, keeping the balance between order and chaos
> is something the LNH does a fair amount--see any story with Master
> Workload. He might also have become more active because of both his
> transformation into a mortal and the change in the nature of reading
> and writing--Thoth's original reign as god was before the rise of mass
> literacy, etc.

Indeed!  

> There were two goddesses who were said at various points to be the
> wives of Thoth--the aforementioned Maat and Seshat, goddess of wisdom,
> knowledge and writing. (The latter was also sometimes said to be his
> daughter, an example of the indeterminacy I noted above.) We don't
> know whether either of them was incarnated as well, or any of the
> other Egyptian gods.

Possibly.  Possibly some of them escaped in other ways, and possibly
they're in the Afterlife For Gods.

> (Set, AKA Sutekh, is probably a good bet because
> in later periods he was thought of as an evil god, associated with
> darkness and chaos, and he's the one who usually gets cast as the
> villain. He wasn't alwasy regarded as evil, though.)

Reminds me of ASH's Third Age, where he empowered both a hero and a
villain.
 
> Also, on Earth-20, he should actually be Egyptian, and he works on
> both worlds to build and protect libraries in his homeland and
> throughout the Middle East.

Hm.  I thought we were going with the LNH20 Library Lad *being* the Classic
LNH Library Lad - unless, of course, you mean his counterpart there.  In
which case, I like it!

> AJM (also, what exactly is the Mini-Fan of Thor, and why does Library
> Lad have an artifact associated with a Norse god?)

You know those cheap tiny portable battery-operated fans?  Well, I had one
back in 1996, and I thought it would be cool if he had one that was
cosmically powerful.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, love mythology.