In sunken Averorn, the kraken, a giant squid, sprawls asleep, his two longest arms curled around a pillar bearing the symbol of the conquered god. After killing the kraken, the merfolk plunder the wealth of the city, including golden gods/idols.
What becomes of defeated gods? When I was a Religious Education teacher, I got some pupils to write an account of the Biblical siege of Jericho from the point of view of those in the city. In one story, people terrified by the sound of the Israelite trumpets went into a temple. When the city walls fell, so did an idol, revealing a a secret passage leading to an underground escape route. The gods of the city helped some of their followers to escape. An alternative story leads away from the Biblical narrative...
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It might seem trite, but what that first paragraph reminded me of was Tolkien's description of how Bilbo Baggins first saw the dragon Smaug, as he sprawled in sleep atop his mound of gold and jewels in THE HOBBIT.
Even that idea of a secret tunnel being used as a means of escape can be found in Tolkien. Idril, daughter of the King of Gondolin, troubled by prophecies of the approaching fall of the city, had a tunnel built in secret from Gondolin to the mountains encircling the city. And when the Dark Lord Morgoth finally found and destroyed Gondolin, that tunnel enabled some of its people to escape and survive.
Ad astra! Sean
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