Hello! So, I'm working on another Ekkreth fic (whee!) and I have some questions that I'm hoping you can answer, as I'd like to keep this compliant with your work on the Tatooine slave religion. (You may have already posted about this, and apologies if so.) 1) Ar-Amu — what kind of deity is she exactly? The Desert? The Sky? etc. 2) If not Ar-Amu, is there an established deity who'd be responsible for lightning, specifically? and 3) Same question, but ownership of heat/suns/fire? Thank you!
Woo, another Ekkreth story! :D I’m excited!
Okay, so to your questions:
Ar-Amu is actually the deity. That is, Tatooine slave religion is a kind of soft monotheism. I say soft because there are certainly other important figures, like Ekkreth themself, who is a kind of folk hero, and Leia the Mighty One, who is both a symbol of the people and a very real dragon. (Just as every slave can be and is Ekkreth the trickster, every slave also has the potential to be Leia, that is, terrible and fierce and untouchable and wholly free. She is the ultimate symbol of the Unfettered.)
Tatooine religion is dualistic to some degree, in that there’s an absolute opposition between Ar-Amu and Depur. Depur is...definitely not a god, but he is certainly a power. In fact, mythically speaking, it’s said that Depur overcame Ar-Amu in the ancient days and stole her children from her, and that is how the people became slaves.
Ar-Amu does have a particular association with fire and the suns, though. Several of her names (Whitesun, Darklighter, Flameweaver, Lightbringer) reference the suns. (And not all of them are gentle, either: Whitesun refers to the killing white heat of the noonday suns, the most dangerous time of the Tatooine day.)
There are several different stories associated with lightning. Sometimes it’s called Elder Sister’s Fire, or Ekkreth’s Torch. The Grandparents will tell stories about Akar Hinil and say that the lightning is his ship engaged in a great battle in the sky.
But lightning is most often called Ar-Amu’s Judgment. There are many stories of a slave master being struck dead by lightning, or a sudden stroke of lightning enabling a miraculous escape.
