>For now(1620's era Tarsh.) From my understanding, when Argrath drives the
>Lunars from Dragon Pass, Orlanth worship literally comes roaring back into
>Tarsh with a vengeance, doesn't it?
No. Argrath made an alliance with Onjur Fazzurson and placed one Mularik Ironeye from distant Tanisor in control. After Argrath has Mularik assassinated, the Lunars reinvade and massacre Argrath's army at the battle of Yoran. They control Dragon Pass for the next few years until Argrath returns at Dwernapple. The course of events after this is murky but it is clear that a Tarshite Lunar rules Dragon Pass while Argrath is away on the Lightbringer's quest. I find it hard to describe these events as Orlanthi worship coming roaring back into Tarsh with a vengeance.
>Tarsh has very old and strong Orlanthi
>roots. Lunar religion seems more of an outside imposition and subversion of
>Ernalda mysteries than anything.
There's nothing untoward or subversive about the Lunar Ernaldan mysteries. It's not imposed on the Earth Priestesses and they follow it because they believe it to be correct.
>This also shows how much worshippers shape their gods. The reason there is
>no place for Orlanth in Lunar mythology
There is a place for Orlanth in the Lunar Mythology.
>- which, strangely, stubbornly
>resists the rights of freedom that Orlanthi culture claims
The right to conduct clan feuds? The right to bully neighboring clans? The clans of the lowlands are just as free if not more so under the Red Moon than they were before.
>- is because the
>Lunar *Empire* can not abide subjects who can opt to defy imperial power.
The same could be said about the Kingdom of Sartar (which relied on fanatical Telmori to keep the peace in its last years) or any tribal king.
>Further, it seems as if
>Sedenya was designed specifically to be a weapon against the Orlanthi
>peoples
She wasn't. The nearest Orlanthi were on the other side of the Pelorian Basin when she was born. Sedenya was a weapon against the _Carmanians_.
>- the 7 Mothers were not interested in any kind of accomodation with
>the southern barbarian peoples,
The Seven Mothers had no contact or even political awareness of the southern barbarians, full stop.
>Entekos,
>one of the predecessor goddesses to Rufelza/Sedenya who is often identified
>with her, is a Green Age goddess amongst other things.
Entekos is not a predecessor goddess to Rufelza. Valare Addi once thought so but she was wrong and wrote the Entekosiad to find out why. Entekos is another name for Dendara, the wife of the Sun.
> From reading the description of the Yellow Peony society in Masters of Luck
>and Death, I get the feeling that there are those within the Empire who
>understand that the use of Chaos as a weapon will destroy the Empire
They understand nothing. The Yellow Peony society are idiots that repeat the error of the Mad Sultan.
>and the
>Goddess' message of salvation, balance and unity, and that Chaos should be
>no part of the Red Goddess.
The Goddess and all those that follow her must accept that Chaos has a place within the Cosmos. If one denies that Chaos has a place, that undermines the foundations of the Lunar Way.
>Perhaps these secret, underground forces in the
>Empire assist Argrath and those who work with him in the Red Goddess' Utuma
>sacrifice, where she finally repudiates and rejects Chaos in a rather Gerran
>self sacrifice, as described in King of Sartar.
I don't see anything about the Goddess rejecting Chaos in King of Sartar.
>It also seems to be that
>the Lunars simply don't have the gut understanding of the danger of Chaos
>that Heortlings and Praxians do - the peoples of the Oslir basin were spared
>the effects of Chaos,
Wrong. They know that the Rebels brought Chaos onto the Empire and their history is replete with the horrors of chaos and rebellion.
>Heortlings and Praxians understand that
>Chaos can in no way be bargained with, integrated, or balanced - it is the
>howling void, which through either subtle lies, selfish hearts, or manifest
>horror seeks to consume the world.
To quote Ernalda, "There is always another way" to deal with Chaos.
--Peter Metcalfe
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