From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Sat 19 Apr 1997 - 05:00:22 EEST
Stephen M. apparently meant the converse of what he said:
> My theory should have said --
> "cults which have merged will have two (or more) rune levels", but that
> other cults might have other rune levels for other reasons.
Put that way round, I have far fewer objections to it, and the latter
Having said that, I doubt it's actually true. C&A has a rather odd
part's exactly what I was arguing, myself. (As was Stephen's O. Rex
counterexample, among other things.)
structure, but only one real "Rune Level" position. (Which is a
"twofer", of course, somewhat obfiscating matters.) Chalana Arroy and
Lhankor Mhy both seem very likely to be merged, and just have yer
standard RP's. Strike "will" and insert "are more likely to" and you'd
get no (more) arguments.
> some Sartar tribes worship Orlanth Adventurous without worshiping
> Thunderous, some Thunderous without Adventurous.
Of course, in that sense: Prax is the obvious example of the former
I think a lot or rural areas certainly only worship O. Thunderous.
instance. I'm not quite so sure if this is actually ever the case in
_Sartar_, though; perhaps in the case of the Elmal tribes? (Steadfast
Elmal keeps the hearth and tribe safe, Orlanth goes off galivanting.)
What I'm skeptical of is the aspects being separate and co-existant,
as I said before.
Go back a few centuries, and I think it would have been altogether
rarer, and possibly unknown.
> Some worship Orlanth Dragonslayer without either Thunderous
> OR Adventurous. He has also indicated that some might worship Orlanth Rex
> or Orlanth Lightbringer as their Orlanth cult.
I think the Lightbringer aspect/version is a Big Modern City Thing.
Cities have the congregation base to support the other Lightbringers as
proper, independant cults, are less concerned with the Big O's weather
and freebooting aspects. If the sort of Generic Pantheon Initiate/Lay
Member status some Listers insist on exists, it seems to me to most
likely to be some sort of "lesser" initiation into Orlanth Lightbringer
- -- on the basis that decadent citydwellers best channel the Orlanth
Backslider aspect. I'd imagine this as being a lot like the published
version of the cult, though with a smaller core of Orlanth magic and the
"traditional" sub-cults, much emphasis on the associates, and relatively
lax time and tithing requirements. Though it may be simply that fewer
city folk get properly initiated at all, or they do so later in life.
> This has led me to favor a modular cult format for the Orlanth cult
> -- shared initiation, then you fill in the main aspect, subcults, and
> associates depending on your tribe's mythology.
That's pretty much how I read the current version. Making it more
explicit that Your Orlanth May Vary would be helpful, though, it's true.
Slainte,
Alex.
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