Dustman wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:48 pmThe earliest men worshiped the Old Ones and were thus polytheistic. Even after the collapse of the warp gates, the winds of change mostly diffuse by the time they reach Nehekhara, so the Nehekharans wouldn't be under the same pressures towards monotheism. The early barbarian tribes would have retained the ancient polytheism but it wouldn't be such a problem as in later civilizations. With low populations, they'd personally know each other and notice when their fellow tribesmen started summoning daemons and mutating. Even so, the barrow wights testify that a lot of these tribesmen were corrupted by their dabbling in dark magic.
Elven resistance to Chaos means they wouldn't be under the same pressure towards monotheism. Dwarves even more so.
My view follows:
Asurs did learn gods names (
id est the way to contact them individually, in order to appease them, to incite them to do something,
&c.) from the ancient stellar nation whose member were called Old Ones, Old Slanns or, among whom were distinguished Old Ones, Old Slanns and Younger Slanns. Some of those gods might had been those ancient people themselves, as suggested by Dustman, in an evhemerist tradition, but we know that Earth Mother predate the landing of the Old Ones (and that the planet was already inhabited, including by sapient life forms such as pygmies, dragons and by Drachenfels himself), so, even if it is the case, not all of them were Old One.
At the time of the birth of Slaanesh, when the warp portals collapsed and the ancient stellar nation was suddenly crushed by a massive invasion of Chaos into the material world, most of the most significant gods worshipped by Asurs, were absorbed by Slaanesh. Among the supreme gods, only Isha, Loec and Kháine survived in a very bad condition. Lesser gods, however, were more numerous to survive. Having repelled the Chaotic invasion, Asurs became the new imperial power of their part of the world, and established colonies in the Old World. In the Old World, men already worshipped the divine beings, but were not exactly aware of who they were, how to please them and how they would be useful for men. Their ancient religion is now called the Old Faith. Hence Asurs, directly or indirectly teached the "names" of surviving gods to Old World men, then Old Faith believers, like Ægyptians did to the Early Pelasgi according to Herodotus:
Herodotus wrote:ἔθυον δὲ πάντα πρότερον οἱ Πελασγοὶ θεοῖσι ἐπευχόμενοι, ὡς ἐγὼ ἐν Δωδώνῃ οἶδα ἀκούσας, ἐπωνυμίην δὲ οὐδ᾽ οὔνομα ἐποιεῦντο οὐδενὶ αὐτῶν· οὐ γὰρ ἀκηκόεσάν κω. θεοὺς δὲ προσωνόμασαν σφέας ἀπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου, ὅτι κόσμῳ θέντες τὰ πάντα πρήγματα καὶ πάσας νομὰς εἶχον. 2 ἔπειτα δὲ χρόνου πολλοῦ διεξελθόντος ἐπύθοντο ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἀπικόμενα τὰ οὐνόματα τῶν θεῶν τῶν ἄλλων, (Διονύσου δὲ ὕστερον πολλῷ ἐπύθοντο). καὶ μετὰ χρόνον ἐχρηστηριάζοντο περὶ τῶν οὐνομάτων ἐν Δωδώνῃ· (τὸ γὰρ δὴ μαντήιον τοῦτο νενόμισται ἀρχαιότατον τῶν ἐν Ἕλλησι χρηστηρίων εἶναι, καὶ ἦν τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον μοῦνον). 3 ἐπεὶ ὦν ἐχρηστηριάζοντο ἐν τῇ Δωδώνῃ οἱ Πελασγοὶ εἰ ἀνέλωνται τὰ οὐνόματα τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν βαρβάρων ἥκοντα, ἀνεῖλε τὸ μαντήιον χρᾶσθαι. ἀπὸ μὲν δὴ τούτου τοῦ χρόνου ἔθυον τοῖσι οὐνόμασι τῶν θεῶν χρεώμενοι· παρὰ δὲ Πελασγῶν Ἕλληνες ἐξεδέξαντο ὕστερον.
"In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by information which I got at Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the gods, but had no distinct names or appellations for them, since they had never heard of any. They called them gods (Theoi, disposers), because they disposed and arranged all things in such a beautiful order. After a long lapse of time the names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt, and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom they first heard at a much later date. Not long after the arrival of the names they sent to consult the oracle at Dodona about them. This is the most ancient oracle in Greece, and at that time there was no other. To their question, "Whether they should adopt the names that had been imported from the foreigners?" the oracle replied by recommending their use. Thenceforth in their sacrifices the Pelasgi made use of the names of the gods, and from them the names passed afterwards to the Greeks." (HERODOTUS, Histories, II, lii, trad. by George Rawlinson)
Hence, men learned Isha (and called her Ishea, Haleth, Dyrath or Rhya, in their languages), Karnos (and called him Karog, albeit most confuse him with Taal), Torothal (and called him Taal), Ellinill (and called him Lupos, albeit most confuse him with Taal, or even Ulric), Mathlann (and called him Mathann, Manann, Stormfels, Olovald, Manalt, Manas or Manhavok in their languages), Eldrazor (and called him Ulric, Olric or Ursash)... to name some of the main older lesser Eltharin gods.
They also did learn about the dead supreme gods, and while they no longer worship them, they commemorate Asuryan (as Ishernos and Söll). They however feel that Kurnous, confused by men with Karnos and Torothal as Taal, is still alive.
Not all men adopted those teachings and the new practices, and the Old Faith still survive in the 25th century I.C.
Men in the Empire perfectly understand that, albeit the way the worship is done might differs a bit, when Asurs, Eonir and Asrai worship Sarriel, they worship the exact same god as Imperials, Tileans or Bretonnians worshipping Mórr (considering that even in Middenland, someone from Carrobourg and someone from Delbrez will not worship Mórr the same way) and also believe that they worship the exact same ancestor god worshipped by Khazalids as Gazul.
The connexion between all those interpretations should be précised on a point: How Khazalid ancestor gods really connect to Eltharin gods? Gazul is interpreted being the same god as Sarriel and Mórr, but is he associated, in fact confused, with them only because they share some common traits, or is he, really the same manifestation in the warp? If he is the same manifestation and if the evhemerist aspect of Dwarven cults is true to their past, was, in those days, Gazul Sarriel, or was he someone else (like a priest of Sarriel) who ended amalgamated to Sarriel? Who was Gazul? Was he really one of the first dwarves or was he an Old One or an Old Slann ?
What is Gazul's relation to Kháine, who is presented as Mórr's (half?) brother in the Imperial mythology? Is Grimnir Kháine, Gazul Mórr-Sarriel and Grugni Ishernos-Asuryan and Valaya Gia?
Or do Old Gods (Taal, Rhya, Ulric, Manann...) come from the Eltharin pantheon, but classical gods (Mórr, Kháine, Shallya, Verena, Myrmidia...) to the Khazalid one? Did, at the time of their alliance, Eltharins and Khazalids shared the secret of their respective gods and, in the consequence, merged their two religions in a new syncretic one, that was then lectured to men? The Asurs, at that time, had lost most of their significant gods, after all...