Okay, here we go again. My mailer facility is working again & I will debate with the three people who responded to my first note about Yanafal Tar'nils (Ta'arnils? sp?). My two statements were; 1) priests of YT don't have time to be an anrmy officer, they are to busy with cult duties, & 2) YT is not exclusively an officer's cult.
Well no, I haven't seen any of these write-ups in TotRM; I'll try to get them from Dave Gadbois. As to how I acquired this "false impression" of military cult duties, I'm afraid that I have been reading Cults of Prax. This work gives a very strong statement in the front about Rune Lords being focused on the mundane world, and Rune Priests being focused on the spiritual realm(s). Essentially;
Rune Lord = mastery of skills Rune Priest = mastery of magic
This leads me to ask why "you all" are trying so hard to force the Priest into a position tailor-made for a Lord? The basic premise of my argument is that the Priest is too busy inteacting with dieties and spirits (and doing all the other things that go along with) to worry about things his friendly neighborhood Lord would (and should) happily take care of for him.
Please note that I am not denying the usefullness of having a Priest of YT attatched to a company/regiment. It is the blanket statement that all Priests are officers that I have trouble with. This is part of my objection to YT being an officers cult (part 2, below).
(Note: I do not have access to a "Gods of Gloraqntha". My memory of the copy I skimmied through is that it dealt with more cults, in a far skimpier fashion. I will rely on CoP, for it's greater depth of detail.)
> The YT from the 7 Mother's cult is a small subsection of all Yanifal
> Tarnils worship. Most YT are just in the army, with the special cases
> in the 7M's cult being allowed more flexibility. After all, their goal
> is to expand Lunar worship and deal with strange foreigners. This
> flexibility makes them 'better' potential PCs. If you want to worship
> YT, join the army. I'm not convinced that it is an 'officers only' cult,
> but most high-ranking officers better be rune-level YTs.
I'm afraid I don't follow this at all. The only write-up I have seen of Yanafal Tar'nils is in CoP. There it is described as very Humaktlike; very concerned with bravery and honor. Are all Humakti in someone's army? No adventurers, mercenaries, bodyguards, etc.? Should be the same for YT. The fact that YT is "the major war cult of the empire" has to do with YT being a soldiers's cult, and popular in the army; it is not army only.
> * A priest of Yanafal Tar'nils would be much better suited to the role
> * of chaplain/healer (any memebr of a war cult without gobs of healing
> * magic is a fool)
>
> Nonsense. Most of the soldiers do their own healing, or else
> the "monitor" does it for them (most Lunar units include this office,
> which is a person equipped with more magic than the norm, and who is
>expected to boost his own file of troops in combat).
> Besides, a Yanafal Ta'arnils healer is pretty stinky compared
>to a Deezola one. Why not assign a Deezola healer to the regiment
>instead, and let the YT Scimitars deal out death?
Most soldiers may have Healing 2, or more, but I doubt many of them have Regenerate. A YT priest won't be able to cure fevers & such the way a Deezola can, but he'll be ready for the kinds of injuries battle produces. And I would expect a YT to be able to fight his way out of a tight corner, where a Deezola would probably die.
My original note said:
"Let us remember that Duke Yanafal is one of the Seven Mothers. As such his cult should be open to those new Lunar followers who have joined the cult of the Seven Mothers, and are looking to move more deeply into the Lunar way. How can you deny membership in a cult of one of the Seven Mothers to 98% of the population of the Empire?"
which, unfortunately, seems to have caused a lot of commentary on how many % should (or need to) be in a cult. This wasn't the point of my statement. The point is that the "officer's only" slant prevents Lunar subjects with a legitimate interest from entering. Many Lunar cults don't attract large portions of the population. For example, Deezola attracts people with an interest in healing; it does not restrict membership to only people with red hair. Similarly, the war cult does not bar the vast majority of the empire's warriors from joining up. (Teelo Norri is not popular, as membership implies poverty; yet the door to Teelo's "missions" are always open to those in need.)
Seriously folks, I can quote lot's of material from Cults of Prax (I'll bring it in & type it in verbatim if requested) that shows Yanafal Tar'nils is open to your average "GI". Where does this "officer only" bit come from? I never heard of it before the Lunar Tunes seminar. I would happily accept the "Scarlet Scimtars" subcult as an officers cult (Fazzur Wideread's sub-cult, if I remember correctly).
PS I seem to remember from CoP that a new Priest of the Seven Mothers
spends one season in each of the sub-cults, and may join any one of them if he/she desires. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Andrew Joelson joelsona_at_cpdmfg.cig.mot.comAKA Rupert von Harl, priest of Yanafal Tar'nils, follower of Humakt "Contradiction? No, I always did tend to kill chaos creatures anyway."
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