>
> The lack of information about Vorlan per se is also makes me curious
about
> the history of Wenelia / Maniria before the Second Age, as it would
appear
> you would have Dawn Age Vorlani before Orlanthi missionaries got there.
> Helerings were across the coastline, and Vorlani I guess farther inland
> along the mountains?
>
>
Some cultures had some great figure who taught them a fairly successful way to survive the darkness. You'll notice the lack of such culture heroes in Oak & Storm. I think this is indicative of the state of things at the dawn, that none of the cultures survived in significant numbers, or in good enough condition to have preserved their culture to a large degree (and some of the cultures did not survive at all, witness the ruins on which is built Fay Jee). I think you had basically various bands that were barely surviving, lacking the size and strength to preserve much physical or religious culture. As life got better, these groups would have met, and I suspect were too weak to even fight effectively--none of the groups could afford much in the way of losses. And they had all lost so much that other groups were apt to have things that they needed.
So I suspect that they started by losing so much, then followed that by borrowing from each other. I don't know how important Vorlan would have been at that time--his powers may have helped some survive the darkness, but not enough I think to form a strong cult. But he would have been known, along with various other inner and outer world powers (certainly including heler, Dokal Hairyman, animal totems, and others). I think these groups would still have clung to some original identity--"We are Helerings, Heler is our great god!" but they'd have welcomed a shaman who could protect them from the elves, or a pig daimone they could sacrifice to in order to find more food in the forest, or animal totems that helped individuals deal with the world more effectively.
Then the Heortling missionaries arrived. They had so much--tools, knowledge, organization, law, and gods galore! But for whatever reason, rather than adopting it wholesale, the locals tried to just take bits and pieces of it. And that is when I suspect Vorlan became more important, culturally--he was a storm being, and his myths showed some relationship to Orlanth. In that way the locals found a way to take some things from the Heortlings, without giving up all that they knew.
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