[Glorantha] Esrolia, Recreating the rites for the Good Old Ways (TM)

Jeff Richard

>>Now how is that different to the Heortlings after Lokamayadon, the EWF,
>>and the Pharaoh on one side and Harmast, Alakoring and the Larnsti on the
>>other?

> I am afraid I do not understand your question.

What is the fundamental difference in "returning to the old ways" out of an only dimly remembered past that has to be rediscovered under layers of less old information between what the Grandmothers did in taking over from the corrupt Hidden Kings (taking Imarja as a guide), and what the respective Heortling heroes did taking over from the corrupt Lokamayadon/EWF/Pharaonic ways?

The ways of life have changed since the Good Old Day (TM), and not all of them are to be abandoned. (E.g. having the man tame the oxen and putting them before the plow has proven handy, we don't want to lose that.)

The oldest songs and dances may have survived only in fragments, or slightly altered in different places. Many an allusion (or kenning) may have become meaningless, or conceptually altered. (Real world example: "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to..." where camal is a translation error and the original saying had "rope".)

So, whoever _creates_ the new liturgy from old fragments will have to adlib in places. (Harmast's greatness was the discovery how and where to adlib...)

> The Esrolians have a saying "Only Your Grandmother Can Make You Do
> Something."

Telling...

>>Which doesn't contradict the idea that the Esrolians believe that
>>they have recreated the original Earth Tribe religion.
>>Indeed - again not different from the modern Heortlings.

> My objection is on the word "recreated".

Then "rebuilt", and not "the religion", but "the old cultic practices". As I said above, they won't have had a functional set of rites, so they had to gather what they had and put it together in a meaningful way, smoothing out the gaps.

> The Esrolians don't think
> they have recreated anything - nor do the Heortlings. They worship
> the gods and goddesses as the gods and goddesses wish. They tell
> their sacred stories of the gods and goddesses to those allowed to
> hear those stories. They haven't recreated anything - they are just
> doing what the gods and goddesses have told them.

And the rites that they use prove that they do it correctly because the rites work. But getting the rites to work must have been something of an effort back in the Greater Darkness and the Silver Age.

>>The Esrolians do seem to encourage other husband cults more than the
>>Orlanthi - (Y)Elmali, Helerings, worshippers of Vestkarthen, Argan Argar
>>and lots of lesser ones.

> Not Yelmalio! The Esrolians like Elmal, but Yelmalio is a Bad
> Husband. And his worshipers are always eventually screwed by the
> Grandmothers.

Memories of Palangio? Do they identify Yelmalio (a rather recent development) with Angdartha? Or do they distrust anyone too close with the Aldryami (and their warriors' god Halamalao)?

>>I think that the more sophisticated Grandmothers will see that they
>>reconstructed not the original Earth Tribe religion but the time of
>>Orlanth in Exile.

> Again, they haven't reconstructed anything.

Except the rites.

> They've been sacrificing
> to the goddesses and gods of Esrolia since the Dawn (and Imarja longer
> than that). There is nothing to reconstruct.

Right - there was not the same kind of sacrifice in the Godtime, they had to use Hantrafal's basic methods to reach their deities since the Silver Age.

Out of interest: did Ivarne in any way influence the Ernaldan side of worship as Heort did to the Orlanthi side?

> BTW, there is absolutely nothing to say that social and religious
> systems should correlate. For example, the Greek pantheon was still a
> royal court even under Athenian democracy and the pastoralist's reed
> hut was still prominent in Mesopotamian rituals well into the Iron
> Age.

A vibrant and alive religion needs to match the social system in some way, or it loses influence. Mesopotamia needed Zoroaster to stop the farmers sacrificing all their tractors, and the Greek democracies started a trend where the activities of the ancient gods (BTW those of the indigenes, not those of the Dorians, although they matched the Dorians' social system at the time of the immigration) became irrelevant for daily life.

Athene only survived in her female warrior role because Athens needed a claim for its leadership role, and then the Athenians undertook some pains to place Theseus on the same mythical level as Heracles.

Artemis - once a huntress - had become a maidenhood guardian, little more.

> Orlanth is still Orlanth in Esrolia - even if his cult is not as
> popular in Esrolia as it is amongst the Heortlings.

Restricted by the grandmothers' rule, Orlanthi men cannot live some of their god's deeds, and as a result that aspect their magic weakens (compared to the belligerent Heortlings).

> Then again,
> Dionysos was still recognized in Rome - even if his cult was severely
> restricted by the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus.

Well, he still had a productive role to fill. (Bacharach means something like "Bacchus' rock", and I hope you found the time to taste some of the local wine besides all that beer... ;-) If not, put that on your schedule next time you visit.)

How important is Mastakos in moder Heortling society? Next to insignificant, hardly anyone uses chariots any more. (Did the Vingkotlings use them?)

Esrolian Orlanth still is the Great God, unlike Doburdun, but all that differs him from Doburdun's social role in Peloria has been put aside into a few nearly mystical fringe subcults in lowland Esrolia.

Ok, I do think that material culture will influence religious practices, too, so here's my go at describing Esrolia. Feel free to add or debate:

I still admire the World Book of RQ 3rd edition, which gave a good idea about rural structure in the ancient world. The population of Esrolia (especially lowland Esrolia, between the rivers) fits into that land only by assuming a similar population distribution as in the Nile delta - villages paced apart without any meaningful stretches of pasture and practically no wildlands between the fields.

I think that Esrolian farmers use irrigation to a small degree (much of the rain carried in from the sea falls on the Caladran range, and then not before hitting the next mountain range (Skyreach/Mislari), so the climate will be drier than Heortland or Dragon Pass), though no wet farming. They need to keep cattle (as source for their oxen), but I doubt they have many sheep. I do expect pigs (being sacred to Ernalda) - probably fed a supplementary diet of reed roots which are quite nourishing (and they can dig out themselves), and I expect a lot of water fowl and riverine fishing (for effective use of those irrigation canals).

We know the main Esrolian export good is grain (apparently wheat?), but I expect a considerable area to be devoted to flax or cotton (the seeds of which can supplement human diet, or at least feed the pigs). Wool will be imported, but linen and cotton can be made from local resources, and might dominate Esrolian clothing.

What I expect to find in riverine Esrolia are cattle grazing reeds on pasture that tends to be wet or along the irrigation ditches, and of course on the fields after the harvest. There is no room for fat pastures, and I think any such soil would rather be put under the plow. Hardly any trees in riverine Esrolia, either - there will be alleys along roads, or along rivers and ditches, but no woodland. Whatever timber is needed for construction is rafted in from the fringes of Arstola Forest. Pottery will make use of the fine soil carried seawards by the rivers. There will be ponds where silty water is allowed to sediment, creating good clay for pottery.

The lower hills of Esrolia are mostly grain fields, too. I would expect wall hedges between the fields (as in Cambridgeshire or Schleswig-Holstein) on low dams built by stacking sods, with mostly bushes and low trees useful for other purposes (hazel, elder, willow), with occasional oaks sticking out (pig fodder). Here, pottery clay will be dug up rather than harvested. Pasture could be combined with orchards.

Somewhere in the lower hills there must be some vinyard areas, too (that's where Colymar's wife came from, and also the Clearwine plants).

I expect housing to make use of bricks made from inferior clay or riverine mud. Esrolia being not exactly a dry region (winter storms can bring torrential rains), probably fired (they use kilns already for their pottery - maybe the bricks are fired when building a kiln from mud bricks, and after some use taken away for house building, with a new kiln constructed from raw bricks?). Bricks and pottery probably are fired with char-coal, which might be rafted in along with the building timber. Wattle and daub (the latter reinforced with reeds or straw) will be used for most of the walls, though, or basic brick and cob structures. (Check out Wikipedia on these building materials, nice insights there.)

I expect a lot of Esrolian trade to be riverine. Broad-bottomed grain barges delivering the harvest and export pottery to the sea ports on the Chorarlinthor Bay (with Nochet strongly rivaled by the better positioned Rhigos, now that Waertagi city-ships aren't the main means of transport any more), timber rafts bringing in a steady supply of timber and charcoal from the northwest, and sleeker barges delivering grain, pottery and some overseas goods further upriver. (The oxen earn their keep in the non-plowing seasons by pulling barges upriver...)

What are the main types of mill in Esrolia? "One good use for Orlanth's excessive energy?" There might be a trade in millstones between the North March (maybe New Crystal City, and nearby sources in the Skyreach Mountains) and the riverine regions of South Esrolia and North Esrolia. Received on Wed 20 Dec 2006 - 13:12:09 EET