Personally I'd be in favour of a good discussion of the Lunar army and/or Yanafal, but this isn't it, at least in large part. A bit of adherence to Rule 3, and its obvious Corollaries, would help a lot. I think that further argument over entrenched positions such as "(Orlanthi) All Lunar Officers are YT guys", or "CoP gives the One True Version of Yanafal" can safely be skipped for the duration, however.
> Guy ("According to") Hoyle says that Gloranthan cults oughta
> have:
> >Spells better designed to protect the child from the rigors of
> >childbirth
> What, like Breathe Amniotic Fluid or something?
Perhaps more like Prevent Breech Birth (or Side) Birth, say. While non-traumatic still birth was obviously a larger factor in The Bad Old Days than it is here and now, the actual process of giving birth is about as hazzardous a natural process as they get, for both child and mother. If as many netters seem to play, the various bits of Glorantha aren't as rife with infant mortality, starvation and disease as their respective earth analogues, this becomes a yet more important consideration, relatively speaking.
On the other hand, hopefully Gloranthan medicine isn't quite so advanced that Perform Unnecessary Caesarian is a staple of earth temples.
> The birth itself
> doesn't harm the babies much, although it is traumatic.
> Anyway, the way I view it, birth is the prototypical heroquest.
"Sorry, M'lord, your heir was strangled by its umbilicus, but hey, tradition's the thing, eh?"
> It's also an impressive and spiritual event, particularly the
> first time.
I'd say being born any subsequent time was _much_ more impressive... Got Arkat a lot of press, at least.
Yes granted, it is a rite of passage for the (first time) mother (who now becomes a different Age Status in several cultures), but lethal such seem to be going out of fashion among the Theyalans.
> But easing the pain and rigors
> of childbirth isn't something they'd think much about (or of).
Apart from those obvious wimps, the trolls? Not that Couvade should be carbon-copied to every other culture in sight, as it's characteristic of uz in its (mis)treatment of Mere Males, as well of the central importance of the whole fertility thang to them, but I think it demonstrates Proof of Principle.
> As the Esrolians say, "She who is afraid of a little pain is
> afraid of life."
As the Lhankor Mhy say, "Every proverb has an equal and opposite retroproverb", which in this case doubtless amounts to "Pass the epidural, midwife".
("Posting more quoted than new text is always an option." -- List Poster Proverb. "Good grief." -- List Reader Proverb.)
Alex.
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