> [moved from the Heroquest list]
>>Me> The land is still dead and the Praxians can't contact any fertile >> > earth spirit. Surely that counts for something in suggesting >> > that the Praxian Sartarites have similar problems? >>The Praxian Beast Riders don't care about agricultural (or>>horticultural) spirits. To them, it is unnatural to plant something >>and watch it grow.
> So why does Aldrya/Redwood give Eiritha the magic of
> accelerate growth in Cults of Prax?
Eiritha of the Paps, i.e. the Golden Age Folk great spirit. That means the Oasis Folk use it.
Besides, Accelerate Growth works on wild food plants at least as well as on domestic ones. Such as Skullbush...
>>The oasis folk (including those at the Paps) have a quite functional >>agriculture or horticulture which provides sufficient surplus to >>survive being plundered by the Praxians.
> They do so without the aid of agricultural spirits and are reduced
> to penury. Doesn't it strike you as odd that there are no earth
> spirits to be contacted outside the Paps and Pavis?
As far as we know (i.e. from the Nomad Gods boardgame), that concerns the Beast Riders and those spirits useful in tribal warfare. I agree that whatever the other oases might have to offer would be useless for Beast Riders, but I contend that we don't know that the Oasis Folk don't have agricultural/horticultural spirits at other places. They are the secretive Tada-shi, after all.
>>>>The Fourty-Eight Old Ones - the
>>>>agricultural spirits of the Oasis People - still reside at the Paps.
>>> The 48 old ones are the shattered fragments of the Horn of Plenty.
>>CoP p.30: >>"These are the remnants of the old agricultural spirits still attached >>to the cult at the Paps. Each may be gotten as an allied spirit by >>priestesses of the Paps."
> Which does not have the interpretation that you place on them
> given other Praxian lore.
They are remnants of agricultural spirits. Our disagreement is about whether they are used as such by the Oasis Folk, and whether they (or similar spirits) may be contacted in secret Oasis Folk rites.
>>Where does that Horn of Plenty reference stem from?
> Look at Nomad Gods and compare with the Eiritha writeup in
> Cults of Prax. Three Bean Circus, the Good Shepherd and
> Ronance are both present as subcults of Eiritha and as
> Spirits of Paps in Nomad Gods. The only exception (apart
> from the serpents) is the 48 old ones in Cults of Prax and
> the Horn of Plenty in Nomad Gods.
> The Horn of Plenty was [...] said to be the tip of
> one of Eiritha's horns left on earth when she was
> buried. Ragnaglar shattered the horn but it
> repaired itself, and was full of enough food to
> support many clans.
> Nomad Gods.
It repaired itself... so why would there have to be shattered fragments?
>>And what
>>makes the Horn of Plenty separate from agricultural spirits?
> The fact that its magic lies in providing food rather than growing
> it. In the Good Old Days, the Praxians did not have agriculture
> for they had no need.
In the Good Old Days, the Beast Riders roamed Genert's Garden and Sacred Prax. To call them Praxians in this context is like calling the Kingdom of Night the Holy Country - not quite accurate.
The Golden Age folk of Prax (the Tada-shi) did have agriculture or horticulture, and therefore the need for appropriate spirits. These are hardly "nomad gods"...
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End of Glorantha Digest
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