[Glorantha] Cult distribution

Donald -

>>The vast majority of Sartarite clans have - IMO - no Erantha Gor
>>initiates. They rely upon their wyter and upon the general power of
>>Erantha or Babeester Gor to protect the clan rituals, not upon the
>>initiates of those goddesses.
>That's assuming that there are no myths which require someone to
>take the part of Erantha or Babeester Gor. While a Vingan or even
>a female Helering will do at a pinch it's going to be mythically
>a poor fit. Given that there are very few Ernaldan myths published
>and some of those require a these parts it's more than likely
>most clans have a few worshippers. Indeed the initiation myth
>which Greg wrote for the website implies such parts.

Fwiw, much of the initiation occurs on the Other Side. At a clan level, there just isn't going to be someone initiated to each of the 12 lesser gods and goddesses of the Storm Tribe, let alone someone initiated to each of the minor gods and goddesses. As a general rule of thumb, if you worship Orlanth or Ernalda, your clan will be able perform most of the ceremonies (although many subcults will only be found at a tribal level and certain aspects - such as Thunderous and Queen - will only be found at a tribal level). If you worship one of the lesser gods and goddesses, you will have to look to the tribal center or beyond. And if you worship a really minor god or goddess, you might have only one or two centers in Sartar.

>>FWIW, I think the cult is more popular in Tarsh and Esrolia. Around
>>Wintertop, I suspect the cult distribution for women is significantly
>>different from Sartar.
>I agree there will be far more in both those places. What I don't
>think is that there's a clear border. Many clans trace their roots
>to Esrolia and others will have links with the Tarshite clans
>around Wintertop. In such cases they may well provide the core of
>the clan warband - say twenty Erantha Gori rather than twenty
>Humatki.

As a general rule, most of the Esrolian settlers ended up as Grazers, most of the Tarshite settlers ended up north of the Creek. The rest were largely Hendriki (with the usual exceptions).

>>Why a couple of dozen? In most cases, the two Door Guards will be
>>carved stone pillars, not people. In all of Sartar, I doubt there
>>are more than 150 Erantha Gor initiates.
>A couple in each clan, for ritual as I explain above. Yes stone
>pillars will do for a lot of purposes but not all.

Again, some clans might have two Erantha Gor initiates, but most clans probably don't. Most end up serving in one of the major Ernalda Temples.

>In relation to this I split your figures between male and females
>as follows:

[Good stuff deleted]

>Now that gives a total of 875 males in minority cults but only
>530 females whereas I would expect about 700 each. So either
>the is a social reason why women are much less inclined to
>choose other gods or we're missing some cults.

Actually, we should deduct about 200 Elmal worshippers from the Orlanth cults - the Enhyli are a statistical aberration. That gives us 675 to 530, which probably is off a bit. There might be a lot more women in the Other column, there might be more women Eurmali, and so on. It is a bit lopsided, but it is within the range. If you want to have 25 Erantha Gor initiates in the Colymar, I'm sure there is enough wiggle room to do that (just drop some of the other cults' numbers a little bit).

>As a first stab at resolving this I suggest there should be
>120 Erantha Gori and that the Vingan figure is the traditional
>Vingan fighter. In addition there are another 50 who have
>joined Vinga as a route to cults such as Orlanth Carl. The
>numbers of men want reducing to bring that in line with the
>one in seven proportion but that can be in proportion to
>the numbers.

I think 120 Ernatha Gori is a bit much. I really doubt the cult has more members in most tribes than Issaries or Humakt. Now that might be true in Old Tarsh (in fact, it probably is true), but the Colymar have Hendriking origins.

>There's been a long and convoluted debate on Babeester/Erantha/
>Maran Gor. I understand the official line (based on Storm Tribe
>and a write up in Tarsh in Flames) is that Erantha Gor is the
>Guardian of the Earth while Babeester Gor is the Earth's Avenger.
>By my reckoning that makes Erantha more common than Babeester.

I think Babeester is really rare outside of Esrolia and Old Tarsh.

Jeff Received on Thu 08 Dec 2005 - 23:54:14 EET