Charn

[Lily of Archenland]

Ariel--I liked the idea of the ruler being sort of but not exactly a part of the pantheon, myself. I figured that maybe the jinn side of her ancestry had set themselves of as gods, so the royals were god-children... thus the justification for killing off any magician without the right face. If you don't have the genetic markers for being a child of the gods, you have no business studying and using godlike power. But that's probably just me.

[albero1]

Lily and Ariel (or at least I think it was you two,) would you mind terribly if I used some of your ideas about the religion of Charn for a fanfic about Charn that I've been formulating in my brain?

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

@albero: I don't mind at all.

[albero1]

Thanks! (I'll make sure to give you credit)

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Aw, that's nice of you.

[Lil]

I know this is probably to late, but I was reading the first page. I noticed one of the things she said about her sister was "she was always a weakling." This could be Jadis's thoughts on her sister, possibly because her sister did not delve deeply into evil things as to find the deplorable word. But something that came to me is sometimes Villains (even Sherlock Holmes in the new TV show, calls love "a dangerous disadvantage" or other characters will say that loving and caring and being kind makes you a weakling. Or perhaps her sister was more quiet reserved personality, and Jadis's driven personality (I'm not saying there anything wrong with either personality/traits) took over and lead her astray. I just thought, that it was interesting one of the things she calls her sister is "a weakling."

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Ooh, good note, Lil.

[Esprit]

That's an interesting thought, Lil. Was Jadis' sister actually a loving person who wanted to save Charn from Jadis' rule? Or was she just as evil as Jadis, only Jadis knew the deplorable word and her sister did not?

I think the sister must have had a driven personality like Jadis, otherwise she would not have waged war. The question, though, is what she used that drive for. We've seen before how C.S. Lewis illustrates how people's beliefs can skew their perceptions-- the Calormens view the Narnians as barbarians and devils, for example, and Screwtape (from The Screwtape Letters) views God as "the Enemy." So when Jadis calls her sister a "weakling" with "horrible, wicked eyes", it's hard to know what's the truth.

[Lily of Archenland]

I sort of like to think that the sister was, in the 8th Doctor's words, "doing the maths." That she was the sort of person who meant well on some level, but that she did some nasty things along the way because in her calculations they added up to a greater good - i.e. in this case having a less-terrible ruler in charge of Charn.

[hansgeorg]

The fact that Jadis mentioned temples makes me curious about what sort of religion(s) they had in Charn. Ideas, anyone?

Tash worship?

And then in Narnian world it was Jadis who initiated the human ancestor Tash-the-first-Tisroc in it?

Actually, I got the impression Charn was in such a bad fix that Jadis was rightful but tyrant (as her fathers), her sister a rebel with some conscience, but still not a right one.

There is another point about this, which is to me the greatest theological problem with the Magician's Nephew, surpassing even talking animals (they were necessary for rest of series, plus Narnia could have been created to show evolution believers absurdity of evolution): the LONG decay of Charn, past any true worship of the true God being even remembered:

http://filolohika.blogspot.fr/2013/05/t ... tmare.html

Of course, the solution might be that Jadis was not telling the story correctly. How much would Nimrod have said about Abraham (supposing they met, which seems unlikely)?

Other example is of course "mind reading":

http://filolohika.blogspot.fr/2015/06/t ... y-one.html

(links approved by Tooky)