Now to the _serious_ part of the post.
ORLANTHINGS AND SEX
As some other people out on the web seem to do, I do, or rather don't.
That is, believe in the Uleria the Divine Prostitute of Love among the
Orlanthings.
You see, I do not see the Orlanthings as having much hang-ups about sex being 'sinful' or 'dirty' or anything like that, while Orlanthing women are equal to men and almost sacred. Nothing breeds prostitution like shame of sex combined with powerless and vilefied women. Thus, I see no deep need for prostitutes. That does not mean they won't appear in the cities, but I do not believe they are part of some cult.
'Sacred prostitution' gives me two instant associations: A, whatever Eastern Mediterranean culture it was which had the only RW SP I know of - Babylon, I think. Feels distinctly unOrlanthing to me, as I do not associate them with those RW cultures. Others may differ. B, players working up an excuse so their PCs can go to whorehouses and still not need to feel ashamed of what the characters are doing - you know, like saying that the enemy is 'chaotic evil', so that you are 'justified'in killing them remorselessly.
I see Uleria as a diffuse mythical figure among the Orlanthings, the one who taught the godesses about the same thing mortal women teach their daughters when they becom women. She is 'worshipped' to the same degree as Umath and Ga(ta). Her origin is probably Solar. And that way we come to:
SOLARS AND SEX
Dara Happans, on the other hand, have both a view of earthly pleasures
as 'impure' or 'shameful' (at least for People Who Matter - Lodril
peasants don't care for such stupid ideas) and a quite often a view of
women as inferior to men. Further, they are nothing if not urbanised.
Yea, I believe prostitution exists there, quite profusedly. I have no
idea if there are 'sacred' brothels there, but there well might be.
The Yelmalions've got them, although they are intinerant.
In the beginning, UlEria might have been the Goddess who shared Her Love freely with anyone in the Universe; with time, the only woman the priestry could think about which would share her love that way was a whore, someone made the association, and bingo, instant cult.
Note that Lunar views surely have changed that (they value women higher, for one thing),though exactly how I don't know.
SWEDES/SCANDINAVIANS AND SEX
Look, the subject IS Gloranthan, just give me time.
Prejudices raised to the level of myth can sometimes be funny and
annoying at the same time.
While I studied in England, I constantly encountered the myth of
promiscuous Scandinavians in general and Swedes particular. There was
the man who took the ferry to Sweden with the main purpose of buying
smut - a trip to Soho would have been cheaper, and just as rewarding.
There was the spotty young man who asked "There's a lot of
pornographic movies on the telly in Sweden isn't it?" (The answer used
to be 'no' - there still is no pornography in the state-run channels
that you can view without cable access. With basic cable acess,
however, you _can_ see some porn, most of it American, on the
privately-owned channels.)There was his compadre, who seriously
thought I would be more successfull hunting one-night stands than him,
since I was Scandic, see? (No, I didn't test this hypothesis; I like
to think better of English women than that)
There was also the girl who absolutely refused to belive I was Swedish, since I was neither white-blonde nor blue-eyed, but that's on a nother track altogether...
Now back to Glorantha. I transplanted this misperception there, and let the Yelmalions live in the illusion that the cities of those promiscuous Storm worshippers are filled with Ulerian temples, and that their women will have sex with any man at the drop of a hat. The old, stern men, priests and patriarchs, talks about with tones of disgust; the youths drool about it in the Bronze Age equivalent of locker rooms; and Tarshite merchants does a fortune smuggling scrolls with 'Sartarite Erotica' there.
UZ AND SEX
Regarding ZZs and marriage, I'd reckon these guys and dolls would
avoid such stable liasons. Being unmarried isn't especially shameful
for a male Uz, and ZZs strike me as rather anarchic. Marriage means
responsibilities which are hard to dodge, especially since they come
together with a wife's fist, just as hard to dodge. Better stay
single. There are always female ZZs, and slave trollkin for the more
cowardly. Then, Trollpak mentions group orgies celebrating the
marriage to Kyger Litor, which trolls take a great care to practice so
they will do them exactly right on the holy nights when nothing is
allowed to be wrong - you can always volunteer as a 'sparring' partner
for these.
MOSTALI AND SEX
That dwarves reproduce by 'homunculisation' has always been pretty
clear to me, but the RW description Michael turned up has made it even
clearer. I also think they use a similar method to produce nilmergs,
but then they doesn't use the whole outfit with 'mortar and pestle',
so nilmergs (and gremlins) are produced quicker and cheaper than
dwarves. Probably they just extract the necessary part from dwarves
which are about to be recycled anyway, and store it - Stabilize Potion
ought to work fine.
And that is all you get.
==
'The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea,
In a beautiful, pea-green boat...'
>From 'The Owl and the Pussycat' by Edward Lear
Erik Sieurin
Did you think I would reveal things about myself in this .sig?
HA!
sieurin_at_yahoo.com
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #338
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