Re: Being There 101: Earth Temples

From: Nils Weinander <nils_w_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 13:07:44 +0200


John Hughes:
>

> What do earth temples look like? What are the more common layouts? What
> would you find inside? What sort of statues, tapestries, urns? Name one
> thing you'd find in an earth temple that isn't bleedingly obvious, but which
> upon hearing will make most Digesters go "Hmmm, yeah.. that makes sense".

I'll go for the bleedingly obvious... I think most earth temples are square (duh), built of mud brick (or stone where suitable mud is scarce). If they can afford it, the temple doors are sheathed in copper.

> We know goddesses and spirits live inside Earth temples: do priestesses as
> well, or do they live nearby?

I think the priestesses live in the aboveground buildings as per above. What those outside the earth cults don't generally know is that the actual temple, where the goddesses and the daimones live is subterranean. To the casual onlooker the finest, most decorated cube of a building is the temple, but it's just the store room for ceremonial props and quarters for the high priestess, with a stairway down to the proper temple.

Only priestesses and devotees go down into the real temple. Initiates are allowed into the antechamber, but the laity only participate in ceremonies outdoors, on the unpaved temple yard.

Sacrifices are usually libations, the fluid depending on the goddess and importance of the ritual, but strong fertility magic probably requires blood.

I think earth temples store and distribute grain, so granaries are probably colocated, if not necessarily being the same as shrines.



Nils Weinander
The world is a beautiful place and it's worth fighting for

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