I'm not trying to play "Snap: Religious Persecution", Jeff. Nor am I trying to drill you with something you're not keen on. But when you say an "analogue is pretty weak", I'm wondering what that has to do with the price of fish.
Whether the Lunars are monotheists or not, or concern themselves with orthodoxy (though tell that to the 'White Moonies') is utterly irrelevant to me.
I saw an aspect of belief (Orlanth worship in conjunction with hatred of and opposition to the Shepelkirt) that would be opposed by the de facto overlords (the Lunars), and desired a somewhat brutal and villainous organ (Stormfinders) in a troublesome land (Sartar) that could be used to investigate and punish such.
These are simple concepts. Individual brands of confessionalism or superstition don't own them. The idea that the Lunar Empire would only send an investigator to examine rumours of hidden but rebellious Orlanth worship in a pacified clan because they mimic, say, Puritan England in the mid-17th century, strikes me as curious.
Maybe you don't like exactly how I've done it, Jeff. That's fine. I play upon lots of factors ('humour', pulp, pop-culture) more than many would like. But arguing against the broad concept, as you are, seems particularly perplexing.
Cheerio,
Stu.
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