>One of the things that has always struck me as a future problem when
>I was helping with Storm Tribe was that there was very little in the
>way for males to engage in crafting. Issaries, for example, really
>isn't about crafting - he's about the trading and travelling and
>communicating.
>
>However, among the women, there are plenty of cults involving
>weaving, cooking, pottery, and so forth.
What about Orstan the Carpenter and Gustbran the Smith? Then there will be a tanner and a bone carver both of which strike me as Orlanth rather than Ernalda. I'd suggest dyer is an Ernaldan subcult though. Weaving and cooking seem to be something every Ernaldan does just as every Orlanthi farms.
>What is a budding gourmet chef to do? Or a man who knows he's a
>damned good weaver? Nandan provides this access. I suspect that in
>the cities and towns, with their larger sedentary crafter class
>might have a much larger respect for this cult than among the
>more 'manly' tribal areas where fightin', herdin', and farmin' are
>the only really acceptable ways of making a living for a man.
>
>There are, as Donald points out, also fewer need for everybody
>needing to join the fyrd in the towns too.
I don't recall saying that. I wouldn't have thought it was true either. It may well be easier to dodge the obligation in a town.
>It also occurs to me that we never actually learned what god - or
>goddess - Geo the Cook followed. I have always felt that he was an
>Nandandy who spread his own cooking-and-hospitality cult as a part
>of his worship.
I'd suspect a foreign cult myself. Traditionally there was a big difference between "cook" and "chef". The former feeds you, the latter is an artist with food.
>On the other hand, it may be that there's just a whole lot
>of "Pella's Brother" cults which mimic the female craft and
>community cults but considering that there isn't such a set
>of these for the female community (if there was, we wouldn't
>need Vinga in the first place) I suspect it unlikely.
I don't think they are common in Sartar, more an import from somewhere where the Earth Tribe isn't almost exclusively female. While the Storm Tribe is almost exclusively male the Earth Tribe has plenty of gods - they just don't appear in Heortling mythology.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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