From: Peter Metcalfe (P.Metcalfe@student.canterbury.ac.nz)
Date: Tue 06 May 1997 - 04:07:27 EEST
Chris Bell:
===========
>(1) Does any one have any info as to a complete list of Lunar Cults in
>the Lunar Empire?
Easier said than done as the list of the Lunar Cults rivals that
of the Catholic Saints or the Gods of India. In addition to this,
Lunars often have the habit of worshipping the Pelorian cults that
existed before the coming of the Goddess (such as Yelm, Dendara etc).
>(2) Do the Orlnathi of Ralios, Northern Pent, or Dragon Pass/Sartar
>practice slavery in any form, such as the Fonrit peoples,Pelorians or
>Prax Tribes do?
Yes, albeit there are no Orlanthi in North Pent. The redlanders
do worship the West King Wind which outsiders think is Orlanth
but they are as correct as the Hellenistic Greeks who thought that
the Jews worshipped Zeus.
>What are the slavery practices, in brief, of the
>aforementioned peoples? I think it would be inconsistent that Slavery of
>any form would be practiced in Orlanthi culture, as Orlanth is one of
>the penultimate Gods of Freedom and Justice.
The Orlanthi do keep thralls.
'Thralls are the lowest class of person, mere slaves without
any legal status at all. They are considered to be their
owner's property, as if an alynx, cow or horse, but not
identified as people. Among the Dragon Pass Orlanthi, the
status is recognized but has been long out of practice,
especially to enphasize their love of freedom and to
differentiate themselves from the slave-owning Lunars. Most
of the thralls we know about are either debt slaves, other
criminals, and occasionally the recalcitrant war prisoner.
Traditionally, the children of the Orlanthi slaves are not
slaves, but are adopted into the clan which owns the mother.'
King of Sartar p244.
As for slavery being inconsistent with Orlanth's freedom, look
>(4) Finally, what's the full story on Sheng Seleris? What God or Gods
at the Athenians or Antebellum American South.
>did her worship? Were his powers Shamanic in nature, gotten from pacts
>with various Great Spirits, did he serve Dara Happan Nomad deities,
>what?
Nobody knows. His beliefs would have been similar to that of
the typical Pentan, worshipping the Stars, Planets and the Sun.
We do know that he went against the Kralori first. After he had
conquered as much of Kralorela as he could, he then unleashed
his power against the Lunar Empire.
Much of the secret of his success is that when he encountered
stiff opposition from one end of his empire, he imported troops
from the other to scare the shit out of them. Thus the Pelorians
found themselves oppressed by strange mystics with exotic magics
while the Kralori were routed off the field by the sight of
demonical hoplites.
- --Peter Metcalfe
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