Initiates and time

From: Henrix <henrix_at_...>
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2000 17:49:52 +0200


What do inititiate and devotees do with all the time they dedicate to their gods?

An initiate spends 30% (and a devotee 60%) of their time "in worship" (HW:RiG pp. 184). That is, if we exclude eight hours of sleep, 5h 20min for an initiate, 10h 40min for a devotee, each day. Let us say an Orlanhti spends the whole of Windsday in worship, 16 hours. That leaves us with ((5:20 x 7 -16) / 6 =) 3h 30min the other days. I cannot really imagine the ordinary heortling spending more than one full hour absorbed in prayer each day. That still leaves 2h 30min, for what?

And what does the local temple do with all this potential work force? Let us take what I think is a rather small clan, 500 people. Approximately 60% will be able-bodied adults, and roughly half of these will be women. The proverbial all, 85%, of the men worship Orlanth. That gives the temple around 125 initiates, each spending 5h 20min every day worshipping. Let us consider if one of these hours are spent maintinging the physical temple, a good act of devotion. This makes 875 man-hours of work given to the temple each week, the equivalent of a modern company with 22 employees (working eight-hour days, five days a week).

By this I would assume that even a "small" Orlanthi shrine is quite impressive..

What I really suppose is that most of this time spent "in worship" is spent working and doing other things. It would otherwise have rather ridiculous consequences for the whole economy and daily life among the heortlings.

And why does everybody have to be initiates? Okay, lay members are a God Learner idea. But why can they not be communal worshippers? (Who only (!) spend 10%, 1h 30min, a day worshipping.)

In my Glorantha I think I will replace "Most Heortling adults are initiated or devoted..." with "Many Heortling adults are...". (HW:RiG p. 45).

 --
Henrix

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