> I am writing about Ernalda, Glorantha-wide. One
> thing that Greg has
> repeatedly impressed upon me is that where Orlanth
> is worshiped, so is
> Ernalda. The two Great Gods are paired. You might
> have some gods
> similar to Orlanth or Ernalda worshiped alone, but
> they aren't Orlanth and Ernalda.
Then I'm starting to think we're talking about different goddesses who have the same name, and no wonder we're getting confused. The Great Goddess I know as Ernalda is married to different husbands in different places (Yelmalio in Sun County, as previously mentioned, shared equally between five? seven? husband-protectors in Esrolia), or to nobody at all, but her primary identity isn't as "wife" of anybody, it's as "Earth". She holds the Earth Rune, she's the head of the Earth Tribe, everywhere, just as Orlanth's primary identity is as Storm, holder of the Air Rune, whether he's married or not. This sounds as if you're splitting off those bits of her (aspects?) that aren't married to Orlanth and presumably giving them new names (is the Esrolian one where this new "Imarja" came from, perhaps?), plus another name for the overall Earth Goddess, whereas I'm looking at the whole thing and calling *her* Ernalda, same as she was in RQ days. If that's the case, no wonder you find it obvious that Ernalda's marriage to Orlanth is an important part of her identity: it's a "no true Scotsman" proof.
Well, that probably explains what, in this version, happens to the Earth Goddess in Dragon Pass Sun County. She isn't this lesser version of Ernalda, and presumably she doesn't die, since according to your logic, there's no reason for her to do so. And their economic position, being a grain-production base to start with, must be wonderful!
I now start to wonder if this cut-down Ernalda is still a Great Goddess (probably, unless we have a lot of distinct sizes of goddess, but she must be at least a mastery smaller), and what we need to call the full-size one. Gata no longer exists, IIRC, but that's who we're looking at: the top-level holder of the Earth Rune, formerly known as Ernalda, marriage irrelevant. And who, presumably, was still alive throughout Fimbulwinter, but since she isn't directly worshipped in Dragon Pass, this didn't help anyone. She's worshipped in Pavis: the Ernalda temple there is used by both Sun County women and Sartarites, so they must accept her as being married to both Orlanth and Yelmalio, or just see that as irrelevant to her primary function.
And who are all the extra non-married-to-Ernalda storm gods, and who's the top-level storm deity to whom the Air rune is more important than any marriage...? you know, he must be the one we originally knew in Pavis. The one who can be worshipped by anyone who breathes air - trolls, the lot.
Are we quite sure that all this renaming and resulting confusion helps anyone? Renaming Babeester Gor and giving her name to something far more extreme was bad enough, and this looks like an even more complicated version of the same idea.
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