[a resend of a post that seems not to have made it through]
>My take is that a significant number of Ralian natives were sort of
>preadapted to Orlanth and Ernalda worship, probably for a variety of
>reasons (e.g. they worshipped a killing storm, they had once
>worshipped Orlanth but lost this in the Darkness, their Earth goddess
>had traits similar to Ernalda, etc.).
I doubt that once the Theyalan missionaries came to Ralios, there was popular acceptance of Orlanth as there was in Talastar. For example, acceptance of Theyalan worship in Slontos wasn't a sure thing until massed migration of the Vathmai a century after the Dawn. And even then most of the Wenelians do not follow Heortling practices.
That the populations of Lankst and the East Wilds are Orlanthi now owes more IMO to a long and complex tale of migrations (from across Dorastor) and the religious programs of the Autarchy, the God Learners and the EWF in addition to missionary efforts by the World Council.
For example, the initial hub of Orlanthi worship in Ralios would have been the Karians. The Orlanthi were strong there not because of the effectiveness of the missionaries but because the World Council had defeated the local Kvitti, the elephant people who had opposed them. (For simplicity, I'll ignore the Dorastran Amalgam Deities).
The morality of the cleansing of the Kvitti may have split the Karians in twain with one side detesting the beast people and the other side feeling concern for them (and indulging in bestial practices). Arkat then appears and looks undefeatable. The Karians are faced with two options - stay and fight for their lands or flee south to take refuge with the beast people.
The party that stays and fight are conquered pretty quickly by Arkat, enslaved and sent westwards to Lankst. There they prospered in numbers because those lands had previously belonged to the Telmori who had just been slaughtered by Arkat.
The Karians that fled southwards may have been a minority among their beastial colleagues for much of the Imperial Age. The local Hsunchen became heavily entwined with the rites of the EWF (after their ancestor Hykim was identified as a Dragon while the local Orlanthi remained heavily ambivalent - perhaps they receive spiritual support from the lowlanders). Then comes Alakoring who clears the Eastern Wilds of any draconists he can find. And because of his actions, the Orlanthi become the strongest religion among the ruins and the East Wilds slowly becomes Orlanthi territory during the modern age.
That is how the Ralian highlands should have (IMO) become Orlanthi rather than the simple Theyalan conversion posited.
>Another case of preadaptation seems to be Umathela, where the land
>itself was the site of all sorts of God Time doings by storm gods.
>When people showed up, it was thus easier for them to contact the
>Storm Tribe than the Fire Tribe.
My opinion is that it's a mixture of both mythic events by Storm Gods (Baruku of Poto) and knowledge of Orlanth by people sent to Umathela (as Jeff points out). A further consideration is the False Gods Revolt in which Worlath broke free of God Learner control which meant that he was a popular deity for many seeking freedom from their hated masters (so what happened to the other two? - Ehilm's worshippers may have gotten into a pissing contest with the Aldryami and marked for attention by the Knowledge Assassins while Jogrampur as an imaginary deity may not have been very easy to reach).
--Peter Metcalfe
Powered by hypermail