Re: Re: Misapplied Worship

From: Thom Baguley <t.s.baguley_at_...>
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 18:32:31 +0000


> From: "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_...>
>Subject: Re: Re: Misapplied Worship
>
>> Personally, I'd only apply Misapplied worship where the person is
>> attempting (knowingly or not) to create a totally new worship style for a
>> deity/spirit/whatever. So if you try to worship Yelm animistically, since
>no
>> such tradition exists, whack, you get your MW penalty. Equally, if you try
>to
>> worship him in a Heortling theist style, then that's still 'wrong' so that
>> the same penalty applies. But if you try to worship, say, Orlanth, in an
>> animist style, then such a tradition already exists (among the Praxians,
>> and/or Pentans IMO) so no penalty. Whether he's 'really' a god or a spirit
>is
>> nothing to do with it - if the tradition is already established, I
>wouldn't
>> apply a MW penalty for it.
>
>I'd amend that to say that you'd have to learn the Pentan or Praxian
>Tradition, not just say "well, *they* can worship him as a Spirit, so I'll
>just make something up too". You need to learn the proper method of doing
>so. This goes back to my post of this weekend, where an individual or
>community can go to the Otherside and learn/force a different way of worship
>that applies to them. Just because the Penatans ecstatically worship Orlanth
>(frex), does not mean that every Spirit-talker in Dragon Pass can
>automatically do so.
>
>Knowing that someone else worships Orlanth as a Spirit might make it
>*easier* for you to learn how to do it, though.

That doesn't fit with Greg's "Little Brother" piece. OTOH the Praxian Orlanthi know that they are following in a "wrong" tradition. Perhaps the crucial aspect is that there is insufficient critical mass to pass on animist insights into Orlanthi worship. Each follower of Little Brother has to start afresh. In fact this could be a case of the clan deciding "Hey, we need some little Brother spirits. Who'll take the sacrifice and do it?"

Pure speculation, sorry.

Thom

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