Bless Earth and Vinga

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From: Bryan J. Maloney (jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu)
Date: Tue 30 Aug 1994 - 18:00:09 EEST

First, Bless Earth is necessary to merely get a "normal" crop in Genertela. In Pameltela, since the Father of the Land still lives, things are naturally fertile, and Bless Earth gives you an excessive crop. As for the casting "area", I completely discounted the given area as the product of modern agricultural speeds. I run that villages that have enough Bless Earth around don't starve and die. How many is "enough"? That all depends on whether or not I want to run an adventure where there is a risk of a village starving if another Earth Priestess or acolyte isn't escorted there in time or if I want to run in a starving village.

Bless Earth is an explication of background magic. It doesn't need to make numeric sense unless one is of the anal retentive persuasion.

As for Vinga, I have ALWAYS seen her as Orlanth's sister. What evidence is there that she is Orlanth's daughter? I see her as one of the many unsung and underappreciated daughters of Umath. She is an Orlanth "subcult" in many Theyalan cultures because they just can't figure her out otherwise.

Vinga is Orlanth's sister. In Sartar, she is seen as an adjutant, often in association (or even replacing) Elmal, the loyal thane. However, she's also a hell-raiser and is invoked, by men and women alike, when people decide to throw a real rip-snorter of a party. Vinga also has been known to take Orlanth down a peg or two when it looks like he's been neglecting his duties to Ernalda. (She happens to be the one who arranged for Heler to bed Ernalda, too--this was after she bedded Heler herself, on her own terms.)

Vinga is wildness, freedom, and daring. She just happens to be a goddess of these things instead of a god. In a patriarchical society, one that is used to assigning ALL daring mythic acts to male deities (Babeester Gor isn't daring, she's vicious), Vinga has a hard time shoehorning in. Thus, she is a subcult.

I might venture that, In Esrolia, Vinga might be more highly honored. She might be known as "Vinga Wind-Sister", who arranged the marriage for her little brother, Orlanth, to blessed Ernalda. Esrolians might even go so far as to make her the _de facto_ matriarch of the storm clan, who lets her brothers handle various affairs as an Esrolian landowner lets her men handle various business affairs.

Of course, I expect little acceptance of this on the daily, since my ideas on Vinga just don't seem to be mainstream enough.

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