Necropost.
Well, if we're necroing this, might as well go all in.
I just realized that I never replied to you.
For example, please try to rationalize how a blind cave bear somehow managed to beat out every single species of bird to become the animal associated with a sky god.
You could say that the birds aren't actually connected with the sky. When's the last time a bird has hatched young in the air? In fact, a case could be made that birds are creatures of
earth, not sky. They do hatch from a rock-like egg, and are land-locked for a good portion of their lives, after all. Heck, some of them can't even fly.
A blind cave bear, a creature that can't see, and must instead rely on hearing and scent alone to survive and catch prey? They
require the air, rather than just using it to get from point A to point B to escape from predator C. They need those elusive airborne properties to survive. They're completely helpless without them. At least a bird can run away in the proper direction if land-bound.
Think about it from the perspective of an unwary Dwarf. They are just futzing around, hiding from the wildlife, when all of a sudden, this giant monstrosity catches their scent without even looking in their direction, and all of a sudden, without needing to look at them at all, it's charging at them. Is it not possible that that dwarf might see its sudden detection of them as a decree given to them as a sky god of some form, and the bears are the god's symbol in the depths?
Or why a god of pregnancy would be represented as a skeletal male dwarf.
Inevitable boner comment. No, really. A bone-like male body-part gives rise to a pregnancy. It's just looking at it a strange way. Rather than saying "oh, look at that pregnant woman" its going "oh hey, he put his 'bone' in her and now she's pregnant" and drawing the conclusions that they may.
Heck, they could see pregnancy itself as a skeletal dwarf growing flesh until it becomes the baby. It's not really that far-fetched, considering some of the guesses we've had in the past as to how it all worked (sperm are
totally little people, right guys?).
Or why a god of nightmares and deformity would be named "Luxury Palacejoy the Festival of Dances."
In the dwarven world, injury isn't seen as nearly as bad as it is in ours. There is no exiling of the cripples, no killing of the weak (unless we as Overseer cause it). It could even be seen as a
good thing. After all, it's equivalent to a "get out of work free" card, unless your attendants die. In fact, it could even be seen as a luxury, in some cases. After all, this is a world where, relatively commonly, people will just go crazy and make their fellow dwarf into a mug before returning to normalcy. Being wounded is one of the
better things that can happen to you. You get to lie around all day, not having to face goblins or fight elves and humans.
And could it not be said that someone thrashing in the throes of a nightmare is performing a dance, of sorts?
Or why a dwarf civ would show their god of law, honor, and justice depicted as a kobold.
Imagine an origin story where the kobolds were once a grand and civilized society, but they angered the gods, and were cursed to their current state, living in squalor, unable to speak, and incapable of making food and wealth for themselves. Is it not possible? It's likely, even. It's a myth with a moral - treat the gods with respect and don't disrespect their will. That's something that myths are supposed to
do, after all.
Now, these are a bit
weird, but I kinda like that. Why would I want to see Generic Sky God Number 374? Once we clear away our preconceptions, we can start to get interesting things.
Something is only counter to a category if you look at it with our tinted eyes.