Pamaltela, Gods, and worshippers

From: T.J.Minas <T.J.Minas_at_soton.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 15:12:14 +0000 (GMT)

This message originally was destined for the daily a while back but was lost in the disk crash. As it doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere, I am resending it to the new digest.  

A few thoughts and queries

Colin Watson says" The gods exist via their cults". Sorry, must disagree, there are a number of Major deities whose existence is vital to the existence of Glorantha (see RQ Companion, Jonstown fragments), and via extrapolation, probably most of the deities now listed as the "possessor" of each of the Runes in the RQ Deluxe book 5. I am sure that these deities do not exist solely via their cults. They have listed actions in Godtime etc and later (eg Humakt's fight with Yanafal Tarnils). The Gods _ARE_, and _HAVE BEEN_ and _WILL BE_, and that's all she wrote.    

Now a query for Sandy: How many of the above listed major deities (RQ book 5) are:-  

1. Known of in Pamaltela (by wise women etc) OUTSIDE of Umathela (Genertela writ small)?
2. Worshipped (at all) in Pamaltela?
3. Worshipped on a large scale in Pamaltela?

A thought on switching worshippers. Given the recently expressed thought that all Lightbringer worshippers are (effectively) lay members of Orlanth, and the known comments (in Eg Pavis) that the Orlanthi hide their worship in that of Ernalda, I am not sure that this really means abondonment of Orlanth. After all, an Issaries merchant is probably going to be labelled an Orlanthi by the Lunars just as much as a Wind Lord, realistically.

   Additionally, some of this "switching" might involve things like a number of the men joining Humakt to become more warlike etc, or people joining Orlanthi subcults and specialising more.

   And "the last great temple of Orlanth" has to be a load of Moonie PR. Remember, cities aren't exactly the natural home ground of these Orlanthi guys, and if they want a great temple of Orlanth, I'm sure that with a bit of cooperation between priests, they could organise 1500+ initiate (equivalents) on the HHD at a suitable site on a mountaintop somewhere in Sartar.  

That's it for now.  

                        Tim
 


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