Peter Metcalfe invokes my name in his response to Ralf Engels questions on Teshnos:
> Nils W. is better qualified.
I'm not so sure about that, but I can present my speculation.
Ralf:
>What about Teshnos ? Or is this part subsumed under the mention of Kralo-
>rela?
Peter:
>No it is not.
I agree with Peter. Teshnos is not into draconic/mystic philosophy like Kralorela. Also notable is that the teshnan language does not belong to the same group as the kralorelan, so the cultures shouldn't be that close.
Ralf:
>Dendara is not explicitly stated to be worshipped in Teshnos in the G:Cothw;
>in fact there is no women's cult mentioned apart from
> a) Furalor the Death goddess (possibly)
> b) Zitro Argon the god of old men _and_ women
>
>What about all the younger women ? Are they subsumed in the Calyz cult ? Or
>catered for by the cult of the wife and/or sister (godly incest permit-
>table?)/whatever ?
>Or even standard variety Dendara worship without the associated land god-
>dess, the latter only reached indirectly via the embyli (as was proposed
>somewhat earlier, I think by Joerg or Nils W)? Something even more compli-
>cated ?
Peter:
> IMO as Teshnos derives it's core truths from Dayzatar, it
>appears that Yelm's Rightful Government in this area was overthrown unlike
>Dara Happa and Kralorela.
...
>I just had the brilliant brainwave. In Japan the Sun Goddess is feminine.
>Who is better than Dendara for this role?
I see the people of Teshnos as arch-conservatives: more widespread worship of Zitro Argon (Dayzatar) than in other cultures etc. My theory is that Dendara isn't worshipped at all in Teshnos since the teshnans see the sky pantheon as it was earlier in the god-time, before Dayzatar withdrew and before Dendara was Yelm's wife.
In my view of Teshnos Somash (Yelm) is the god of the warrior caste, which now is more of a nobles' caste, while Zitro Argon (Dayzatar) is the god of the 'priestly' caste. This wouldn't clash with Peter's view of Somash as mainly a warrior god, but I do think that he also the ruling deity, even though the oldsters in the Zitro Argon cult are very influential as they have the final say in spiritual matters.
Peter:
>The God learners and drunken Grey Sages who looked at Teshnos saw Solf as
>Yelm
...
Solf is the Lodril equivalent. The teshnan sun god is called Somash.
The question where the women belong is a more difficult one. They might go for the deity of their caste. Given the general oppression of women in solar cultures, they might be relegated to the socially inferior Calyz cult, or they may have more insignificant female deities which are not mentioned in the Genertela book.
When it comes to the land goddess, my theory is that Teshna was the main goddess of the people who lived in Teshnos before the current rulers. Now they are conquered and forbidden to worship their gods, forming the poor and downtrodded Night caste. The embyli stuff was Joerg's idea that the new rulers, without fertility magic turned to their elf friends for Bless crops.
Now this Gorgorma business gives me an idea. She could be worshipped in secret by these landless farmers as the deity of peasant insurrection. 'Eater of elephants' sounds fine to me.
/Nils W
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