The recent line about sex raises a point for me. In the gritty world
of Tekumel, some of the Gods have human sacrifice and some have sexual
rituals. The guidebook even specifies the three of the ten Gods that
have neither, those that practice both, and those that practice one or
the other in their rituals. KOS states that sacrifices were involved
in the attempt to extend the Glowline that was ebded by the dragon.
The implication of the Orlanthi poem in the same book is that death is
a regular part of their ceremonies. The Yelmalio episode in COP
implies that the same is true of them. Apparently rival religion's
rites in the Sacred Time involve attacks on each other (elves/dwarves,
trolls/light, lunar/Orlanth, Storm Bull/chaos are mentioned in the
various examples in various products), or defense against other's
attacks. One wonders what the death rate is from all this! So,
here's my question: what religions have sex rituals (other than the
onvious Uleria) and what religions sacrifice intelligent life, and
are the "ritual combats" just sacrifices or are they real fights, as
COP implies? And I would like to have a better idea of these attacks
against/defense against foes in the Sacred Time: these would make
participation in a religion a bit more of a high-risk activity!: not
to mention the potential for your priest getting killed, or at the
least, losing his POW gain because his ritual was interrupted!
Jim Chapin
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