Let me get this straight.

[bilbous]

Laanx can't be a beautiful Goddess anymore so she decides to be come male!? Why didn't she just become a cruel cold-hearted crone? S/he must be a very minor god to be unable to at least regain the semblance of her lost looks. Her consort,supposedly more powerful cannot be much better or he would be able to use the crystal to give her back what she lost but he just simply disappears from the story. These beings are at best powerful mages and not gods. Perhaps the crystal is a bigger god than the three newcomers combined if it has such power to warp even the gods.

Are we to assume that the history is in the same condition as the rest of the game as in a preliminary form that is subject to change?

[Shauri Sutlar]

Greetings!  I have to admit that I, too, was more than a bit thrown by the sudden change in Laanx's gender in the middle of Her story.  I have since, playing a follower of Laanx as I do, reasoned out the discrepancy to mean that Laanx has become more...androgynous.  By this I refer of course to the fact that She hides away Her face behind a mask and has not been seen by many others at all in the succeeding centuries/millinea (sp?).

I choose to see Laanx's worship as focusing on Her fragmented aspects.  Those who view Laanx as an angry male God and those (a minority, I'm sure) who still choose to see Laanx as She once was...a powerful and beautiful Goddess.  Her anger and self-pity have driven Her away from those She once loved. *shrugs* Perhaps one day She will become whole again

I know I'm not a dev or staff writer or anything, which are the ones you were trying to reach, bilbous, but your post looked so lonely I thought that I might reply to provide a slightly alternate theory.  It is quite possible that the story of Laanx is...incomplete and/or not as fleshed out as it could be but this is what we have so far and I have seen fit to play it this way. 

Please, take it only for what it is: just one woman's humble thoughts

[zanzibar]

My character has actually met Laanx (in game).  She was female and very intense.

[Xordan]

She chose to resemble a Male. The magic scarred _her_ deeply, not just a physical image. The Gods can change their physical form in whatever way they want. Stop thinking like a mortal

[bilbous]

Well then that is all fine but then why is she always refered to as he, his, et cetera. I found it uneccessarily confusing.  Also there is a typo on the page that should be fixed: "workship" instead of worship in the last section.

column and discovering a rocky niche

should be "discovered" to make the tense match the rest. A similar problem occurs at

enlarge the niche and created the

create should have no d as it is being used in the infinitive sense not the past tense.

courses of the underground rivers

should probably be "course of underground rivers".

to feed the fertile and rich land that they had placed on the rock to make it suitable for life

this seems aukward and might benefit from an edit. If it is rich and fertile it is already suitable for life. Perhaps something like "to provide water for the future inhabitants" would suffice.

Everything was made to host the people

could perhaps be changed to "made ready for"

Shall I go on? I'm just trying to help not unjustly criticise.

[Phinehas]

That story has needed a good proofread in a long time. I remember offering at one point...

[Xordan]

I haven't read it for years so I'd forgotten about the typo's Will get them fixed up....

As for the 'he', that's because Laanx switched bodily genders to male. Gods themselves in spirit have no gender. Like Kran don't

[Phinehas]

I do have to agree though that some parts of the setting seem rather confusing.

[bilbous]

What about the style points? It reads like it was written by an inexperienced writer whose first language is not English. I can't say I am an experienced writer but I am a very experienced reader. I did not think it important to point out all the British spellings as to my mind they are as valid as American spellings.

Maybe we should have a rewrite contest to see who can relate the story most elegantly.

And personally I would keep refering to her in the feminine regardless or else try to use her name more often instead of any pronoun.

[Xordan]

That's because it was written by an inexperienced writer whose first language is not English, Talad And the British spelling are more correct than the American ones, because British English is the International standard for English (hence the option of US English or International English on programs).

[bilbous]

Hey I'm Canadian. We spell things either way as the feeling takes us. But don't you know the yanks own the intar-thingy and we must bow to their ways

[zanzibar]

Hey I'm Canadian. We spell things either way as the feeling takes us. But don't you know the yanks own the intar-thingy and we must bow to their ways

I'll challenge that and say the American spellings are not considered correct here, even though they are often used in ignorance.

[bilbous]

Well as far as I know there is no law specifying usage here but at least one university would disagree with you. I did a search for "Canadian style guide" and came upon this link from the University of Waterloo I also came across ads for a book with that title but it does not seem to be online. A search for the American spelling of color on Government of Canada websites returns "Results 1 - 10 of about 218,000 for inurl:gc.ca "color"."
it has little to do with the topic and a post that was clearly for light entertainment purposes unless perhaps you are quibbling with me just for fun.

[zanzibar]

I'm not quibbling with you for fun.  American spellings are becoming more popular because of American word processing programs and spell checkers on our computers, American programs on TV, and even American textbooks in our schools.  That doesn't make them correct however.  Tolerable, in some instances, but not correct.  If you use American spellings, you will risk being seen as ignorant.

*edit*

I just read the link from that UofW website and it seems to support my position, not oppose it.  They say that their students should use the Canadian Oxford dictionary and they give a list of spellings that they want students to use - all of which are British spellings.  The website says to use centre and not center, rumour and not rumor.

[Karyuu]

Back on-topic, folks. I think Xordan explained well concerning Laanx's gender change - are there any other curiosities that you'd like an explanation for? :]