Peter Metcalfe:
> I think Krala is the Land Goddess (despite what GoG says) and the
>Rice Mother is the Grain Goddess of Rice. Given Krala's relative
>lack of importance compared to Dendara^H^H^H^H Den Xi and the Rice
>Mother, I believe that Krala is actually a diety of the Shan Shan
>Hsunchen.
Hmm. I thought that GoG made it clear that the Land Goddess is the _same_ as the Grain Goddess. Krala's special grain is Rice, of course, which has nothing to do with the Rice Mother, who is doubtless much better for the grai.
I don't think that Krala is worshiped all that much by the Hsunchen. Mighty few Hsunchen are farmers, and have little need for an agricultural deity. The Kralori, on the other hand, have at least three agricultural goddesses we know of -- the Rice Mother, Krala, and Den Xi, and can use all three -- I don't imagine that if you wander into a typical rural Kralori village you'd find temples to all three. Rather, I surmise that you'd see a shrine for one of them, and maybe some sort of subsidiary altar for the other two. The exact goddess propitiated doubtless varies from village to village and with local needs.
Perhaps a town that grows primarily rice worships the Rice Mother, while a town that also grows other crops needs Krala, while a town that does fishing, or herds beasts, or engages in crafts is likelier to worship Den Xi. I surmise that Den Xi is the most "citified" of the three, and that commoners inside the metropoli stick primarily to her.
>So Sandy, how's that for a theory? Regardless of what the
>population of Sartar is, I postulate that more than 10% lives in the
>cities and pursues urban-type occupations.
What does this give you, MGF-wise? I guess I always assumed (never having bothered to work out the details, mind you) that only about 3% of Sartar was urban, and the rest were farmers. Of course, all the farmers for several miles around any given town probably thought of themselves as "citizens" of that town, or at least felt obscurely that that town "belonged" to them.
Dave D.:
> there are also cults that don't have gods -- Basmol is dead, frex.
And Mostal, too. And Ernalda, for half the year (most Earth cults have this handicap, IMO). And then there's the cults who don't even have a _dead_ god, such as Path of Immanent Mastery.
Peter M,.:
>Sandy wrote in a past issue of the digest (henks) that there are no
>Lions in Prax except for sterile male ones produced by the Basmoli
>themselves.
A belief to which I still adhere. Unless you count "spirit lions" and the like.
>I don't know if there are lions in Ralios as of now.
Nor do I. Anyone have opinions on this?
>The Ralian Basmoli who have become civilized can still worship
>Basmol.
That's true, but I bet it's just not the same. Sort of like kissing your sister.
Alex Ferguson demonstrates that the Horse Nomads originally came from Peloria, not from Pent.
Your arguments are pretty convincing, to me. I still think that there were nomads of some sort living in Pent even in the First Age, but no doubt the defeated peoples after Argentium Thri'ile overran, killed, or adopted the original Pentans. Since neither group had written records, there'd only be vague half-mythological references to the original Pent folks (candidates, anyone who knows more about Pentan mythology than I?)
Alex also thinks that the False Dragon Ring didn't import Yelm to Kralorela, but some kind of bastardized Ehilm worship. I can buy this theory, too.
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