Composition of Solar Tribal Rings? from John Hughes on 2000-01-28 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_primus.com.au>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 21:06:08 -0600

COMPOSITION OF SOLAR TRIBAL RINGS? I just can't get my head around this one, so I'm stepping right back and asking some very basic questions.

Can anyone suggest for me the typical composition of a Yelmalian/Solar clan or tribal ring in the Far Place or eastern Tarsh c.1623? I assume it would be more hierarchical than its Lightbringer conterparts, but given the propensity for conversion back and forth (esp. with former Elmali clans) I also imagine there would be strong structural and dynamic similarities. Would places be granted to representatives of gods, as the Lightbringer rings do? If so, what would be the central deities, and the lesser, regionally variable ones? Are there alternative, non-deity models for solar clan and tribal governance that would operate in rural areas? What role
(formal or informal) would the Womens Circle (or its Solar counterpart)
play? What might be held in common with the Sun County descriptions, and what would be different? How Pro-Lunar would Far Point Yelmalians be, and would this be reflected in their tribal bodies?

I'm facing a situation where my (Elmali Orlanthi) clan ring is being converted to a Solar one. My Tovtaros tribal king is Yelamlian, and so are most of the Tovtaros clans. The Tresdarnii are approx. 45% Orlanthi, 40% Solar, with the rest Ironfist Big Wind or strictly neutral Earthers ("The Queen takes many lovers"). Things have developed a bit further from the situation described in Questlines I. An Orlanthi ring is simply unsustainable in present political circumstances.

The situation is in some ways similar to what happens when Orlanthi rulers
(and rings) convert to the Lunar Way. I don't believe 'kill em all and
start again' is a realistic option and I doubt it ever really can be. Clan bloodlines are after all the basic economic units, the units of production, and in a gifting economy like the Far Place you can only tinker so much with basic economic realities without bringing the entire stead/clan crashing down. The key elders and their webs of inter-relationship simply cannot be dispensed with, whatever their 'official' roles. So what are the dynamics of religious changeover? I'm willing to assume that a sizable minority will choose, as the Hawaians so aptly put it, "the god for the day when the god is needed". But how would a changeover take place?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts on this.

John
(Long in the Wind, too little in the Sun)

nysalor_at_primus.com.au                           John Hughes

nysalor_at_yahoo.com
johnp.hughes_at_dva.gov.au

-.. a flying arrow, a crashing wave, night old ice, a coiled snake, a bride's bed talk, a broken sword, the play of bears, a king's son.

                                           Havamal 86.

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End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #329