From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@compuserve.com)
Date: Fri 11 Nov 1994 - 19:59:40 EET
> Isn't it sort of strange that _Orlanth_ is found in more-or-less the
> same shapes and flavors all over Genertela, while poor Ernalda has to
> see herself supplanted by various local bimbos?
It would be strange if only the Earth Mother's worship varied. That's why some of us assume "Orlanth", too, varies between regions of the Barbarian Belt. We aren't trying to have our cake and eat it; we're just trying to create more differences between Sartar and (say) Brolia. "OK, so there's no Lightbringers or Kings or Tribes... but at least the world-wide Cult of Orlanth (tm) is exactly the same!" (NOT!)
Me, I interpret "The Cult of Orlanth" the same way I would "The Cult of Dyaus-Pitar": local variation is expected, and is contained within the common socio-religious overstructure that makes variants recognisable and indeed comparable.
Heck, even Orlanthi poetry differs between regions!
And remember that old tag about Adventurous and Thunderous worshipped as different deities with competing priesthoods? That's neat, and varied.
> [Urox]: I think Greg just threw in something with a norse sound to it
> while writing KoS, to counter all the celtic stuff. ;-)
Urox = Aurochs, surely. Not Norse.
Let's not start a quibbling match. We both agree there are social changes afoot in Kethaela, and that some reactionaries pushed off to Dragon Pass. Beyond that, make up our own stories. You suggest that the migrants have regressed to a pristine ur-Orlanthi state which was not previously to be found in Heortland, but you'd surely admit the only reason to do this is that it allows your Aeolian Malkionised Heortland to have existed earlier and longer than conventional chronology could countenance. I'm getting to the stage where I have to mentally qualify every theory of yours; there seem to be distortions, possibly subconscious, in practically everything! Better to be honest and up-front about it. <g> I prefer to make "radical Aeolianisation" more recent, because I can better see where Sartarites came from under those circumstances. And because the "Mediaeval" West may not have looked that way in the past, IMHO, any more than the real middle ages existed unchanged and unchanging for thousands of years.
> ... These enormities are vunerable only to the Six Weapons of Doom
> (which is lost to Glorantha).
Only Six? Pah!! Old-fashioned fuddy-duddy! (Deep in the Abandoned Mines, and forging ahead...)
> A Wave of political violence sweeps Esrolia as the Queens debate on
> how a matriachy should be run.
Exactly what I think is happening, post-Pharaoh. No sarcasm needed!
> The original intent of the rules change in RQ III making different
> types of spirits was to have a diverse spirit fauna...
Some people want the diversity to be reflected in more tangible/mundane ways, distinguishing between Troll spirits and Wolf spirits and Flower spirits rather than between game constructs with different stats. The end result would be still be a diverse fauna and ecology; but it'd also be one which we Gloranthans could relate to in a more colourful, character- building way.
Your Malkioni marriage proposals all seem fine and dandy to me, with lashings of MGF. It's just important to remember that these matters too will vary between the sects: different explanations for the same customs some of the time; different customs at others. The Malkioni are basically monogamous, but I'm sure there are exceptions...
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