When I said the cult = the army, what I meant of course was that at least 85% of YT initiates were in the army. I don't think that the YT cult has an official organization above the level of regiment.
>IMHO only career military worship YT, so the native furthest corps,
>for example, features relatively few YT initiates.
It might be interesting to figure out how long the term of service is in the Lunar army, especially the auxiliaries. The Romans (as we know) served 20 years in a Legion, but the auxiliaries served 25 years. I picture the Lunars as being broadly similar in length of service. I.e., if you're in the Lunar army, you're there for at least a decade. Probably enough time to make it worth your while to join YT, even if it's only for the duration. Of course, the native furthest corps might be more like a militia, in which case the members have day jobs, probably keeping them from bothering much with YT, except for some of their career officers.
Renekot the Stone
>I asssume that the clan levies some form of taxation
No doubt. It may not be in the form of "income tax", however. Instead, you might be required to pay something each time you use the clan marketplace, or pay a little extra when the king sends the priestess by to bless your crops (you pay the priestess already -- the king gets a bonus, too), or perhaps you're obliged to put up one of his thanes for a week or two each year. The number of different types of government levies were bewildering in their complexity in the good old days.
>Does the clan use coin?
Of course not. Only city-dwellers ever see coins. A typical hill-country bazaar probably doesn't see a single bit of clinking silver (unless you count cutlery). Everything is in kind. Really, coinage is a kind of magic treasure -- a small, easily carried object which you can exchange for useful goods. It's not quite as dire a black magic as the sorcery of "reading", but still ...
>What is the grain of Dorastor anyway?
It has now turned chaotic. No one plants it anymore -- even if only 05% of the stalks have chaos features, that's enough to make it dangerous to harvest.
Mark Hansen:
>Can an initiate learn all of the command and special divine magic
>spells available to the cult as one-use (provided that the spells
>are reusable for priests)?
Yes, in most cases -- note that the cult of Humakt discourages use of Berserk and Sever Spirit among non-Swords, frex.
>Can initiates learn common divine spells and/or spirit magic spells
>from "associate" or friendly cults?
Only rune spells provided to your cult by said associate. Spirit spells can be learned, though at an increased cost.
> If no, what does an initiate of a "rare" cult do?
Depends on the cult. Divine spells aren't gained often enough to matter really -- if you can make the trip to the temple for the high holy day, you can sack for your Hie Wagon spell then.
And as I indicated, you _can_ learn spirit spells from other sources. It's just not as cheap as your own priest.
>I believe it was Sandy P. that posted (a while back) some
>alternative ideas for gaining POW. I think it was something like
>you get a point of POW for attending high holy days for the cults.
>If so, seems kind of unfair if your cult has fewer high holy days,
>so I must have it wrong.
If by "gaining POW" you mean "regaining Rune Spells", then my rule is that you get 1 POW-equivalent of Rune spells per holy day if you're an initiate. If you mean "gaining POW for being an initiate", then my rule is that you get a POW gain check each high holy day.
The latter isn't unfair, because no cult has more than one high holy celebration in a year, and each cult has at least one, even if it's only Sacred Time. I also play that a priest gets a POW gain check each time he officiates at a holy day, and an automatic POW gain _roll_ each time he does so at a high holy day. I also play that the priests squabble among themselves as to who gets to officiate at _this_ upcoming ceremony.
>Are all clan members expected to become initiates of Orlanth, or
>just Lightbringer gods, or just "acceptable" Orlanthi cults?
Kind of a weird question, since it's your clan, but I'll try to answer it. The most conservative Orlanthi culture known to me permits its clan members to join any Lightbringer cult and any cult friendly to Orlanth or his associated cults. Thus, if you belonged to the Orlanthi Fundamentalist Clan, you could worship Orlanth, Ernalda, any Lightbringer, Humakt, Storm Bull, etc. Even cults like Babeester Gor or Argan Argar are technically acceptable, though your parents might have a fit. Of course, if the clan had been battling trolls for the last few generations, Argan Argar would be right out, but Dormal or something would still probably be okay.
When in doubt, I admit I always decide on the side of "give players the most choices possible".
Alison P.
>As far as that goes, we don't use the vegetarianism bit at all.
>European cultural background (which is heavily used for most
>Lightbringer cultures) does not include, and never has, a vegetarian
>diet. It doesn't work in their climates.
Nonsense. I'm no vegetarian, but I'm hip enough to know that the climate in Japan and China is far from subtropical, and there are plenty of vegetarians living there under harsh circumstances.
Aside from this quibble, I agreed wholeheartedly with Alison's statements about CA. Note that my contention that CA healers are vegetarians doesn't mean that they care when other folks eat meat. As a pious Mormon, I teetotal and avoid tobacco, but it doesn't offend me when someone else smokes.
Mike Cule
>On another social taboo: does anyone know if homosexuality exists on
>Glorantha? And how the various cultures react to it?
Of course it exists. The reaction to it varies enormously by culture. Recent revelations would seem to indicate that the Pelorian sun-culture has a sort of "Don't ask/Don't tell" attitude. I picture the Orlanthi reacting to homosexuality much as the Vikings did to ergi (their own term for it). I.e., twas a deadly insult. I imagine that many tricksters are homosexual in the Orlanthi culture, since insults and mores don't really matter to them. Here exist my opinions for some other cultures. Note that I'm perfectly ready to change these opinions if confronted by interesting evidence to the contrary.
PRAX: shamans are expected to participate in homosexual rituals. It's consider unwholesome for non-shamans. Probably the shamans use slaves or apprentices to sate their lusts.
MALKIONI: clearly a sin against the Invisible God. I suspect homosexuality has a presence among the celibate Rokari priests, but 'tis hidden as much as possible.
KRALORI: homosexuals are required to register with the Imperial Bureaucracy and join the cult of Gen Ke. Homosexuality is considered to be an incurable, non-transmissable disease.
EAST ISLES: no particular opinion. Homosexuality is considered a peculiar quirk, but there's so many quirks in the Isles this one is comparatively minor. There exists one island on which _everyone_ is homosexual. "How do they maintain their numbers?" Good question. Has to do with that island's particular magic.
DORADDI: the Doraddi reaction to homosexuality is much the same reaction they have to seeing someone eating whale blubber. "Blech." But they don't feel like they have to _do_ anything about it. Homosexuals are neither feared nor persecuted. The males, at least, are pitied, since few women will marry them, and so they are permanently low status. Lesbians also lack power, since a husband does increase a household's earning power significantly.
It's not unknown for a homosexual man to wed a lesbian, so they can work together as a household. There is an enchantment available from Faranar which causes marriage partners to fall deeply and sexually in love with one another. When this spell is performed over a gay marriage, the man and woman become sexually attracted to each other, but not necessarily to any _other_ member of the opposite sex. Thus, the man would lust after his wife, but other women would not be stimulating. This enchantment does not displace previous attachments and committments, and many homosexuals do not bother to avail themselves of it.
It is commonly believed that Jmijie wanderers have a higher rate of homosexuality than tribesfolk.
>And do any of the cultures practice polygamy/polyandry?
Yes. But like real Earth cultures, the incidence of actual practitioners of polygamy even in a polygamous culture is rather low, since the human species tends to produce males and females in a fairly constant ratio.
In designing such societies, it may be helpful to provide notes on a real-world polygamous society -- that of 19th-century Utah Mormonism. Approximately 3% of the men practiced polygamy, and one of the known functions of such polygamy was to ensure care for elderly widows. It was considered a burden on the man to be called to marry an extra wife, and only men who were considered strong church members were singled out for this. It also required a fair amount of financial security, since the husband had to be able to build a separate house for each wife -- he didn't have to _build_ the house unless the wives demanded it -- he just had to be _able_ to do so. Normally the wives became good friends. Children called their father's additional wives by the term "Aunt" so-and-so. Reportedly, the presence of a number of women to help babysit and work around the house was a significant benefit in the hard pioneer days, even if some of the women did tend to be elderly widows.
My own wife's great-grandfather had three wives. She claims that the wife she was descended from was his "favorite", and other reports from the time do indicate the presence of favorites. However, the man was required to pay attention to less-favored wives, and failure to keep up to his committments led to the wives combining against him. For instance, if the man bought an article of jewelry as a gift for one wife, he'd better consider buying such an article for _all_ his wives, or he'd get the silent treatment three times over.
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #125
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