> So it seems that Minaryth's initiation was exceptional for a reason that
> he doesn't explain (it could just be local custom). The earliest that I
> know of is Harsaltar the Terrible that became a Humakti in the Household
> of Death at the tender age of eight.
There also are the child kings of the Illaro dynasty of Tarsh, which were able to procreate by the age of six, and apparently fully heroic kings with all royal magic. They were magical in themself, needless to say, and may have been ripened beyond their mundane age on the Other Side.
>>I also remember a comment somewhere -- maybe in John Hughes' writings -- >>about the wrongness of boys who hadn't been iniitated bearing weapons >>If I extrapolate this to women I find myself with either a conundrum or >>a cultural difference. I find it difficult to imagine that a normal >>Heortling 8-year-old girl can't use a drop-spindle or help her aunts >>weave the starting bands for warping the loom. Is weaving instead a >>"woman's mystery", not taught until after initiation?
> I'm not too sure about this either. I do think that Orlanthi boys, like
> little boys everywhere, would play around with toy weapons long
> before they are initiated.
Seconded. They also get access to simple hunting weapons at about age 8 or 9, or when they are prepared to go shepherding. Weapons like darts, the sling, light spears or staffs are common among boys in any culture.
They are also supposed to have working knowledge of cultural weapons at the time of their initiation. What generates a wrong feeling (in any culture) are (uninitiated) children with deadly weapons meaning to use them.
On the other hand, the Orlanthi have no qualms at all about child soldiers if these have undergone an initiation. (Well, no more qualms than about adults initiating to Humakt or Maran Gor...)
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