> the imperfect RQIII version [of sorcery].
You praise it with faint damns, Sanford.
> Alex Ferguson prods me on the Kralori attitude towards foreigners,
> [...] The condition is incurable, and everyone from abroad has it.
> Some _are_ considered to be non-contagious.
My on-line brain-dump seems to have been pretty close! Well, I got near-ish at the last gasp. Additional details and colour appreciated. How are you getting on with the rest of the list? ;-)
[ritual Eirithan meat-eating]
> >I don't see why this would be any sort of ritual obligation. It'd
> >be a bit like requiring Magasta worshippers to ritually get wet.
> You don't think Magasta worshipers _aren't_ obligated to do
> this?
Nope. Not at the typical temple, at least.
> I bet that a non-water-dweller who worshipers Magasta is
> required to undergo a ritual complete immersion every Waterday
> without fail.
This all presupposes that the (local) cult _has_ non-water-dwelling members. If it doesn't, it's never even been thought about, and isn't a requirement of membership. Say one such prospect turns up. Do they make up a requirement to undergo a ritual complete immersion every Waterday? Maybe, they do, if that's what they happen to come up with. Certainly they insist on _some_ set of requirements that demonstrates that they are Most Magastan Men. Probably a darn sight more rigorous than a bit of H2O.
> I also bet that in the Sea Season Dances, any Eiritha
> woman who fails to eat her chunk of the Spring Calf, roasted over the
> Sacred Wood, and then seethed in its own mother's milk, is cursed in
> the upcoming year for not partaking of Eiritha's bounty.
Well, we were originally talking about CA-types, so this may not be strictly pertinent. After all, they would be trying to get by _without_ this bounty, in any case.
This sort of ceremony at least puts the horse before the cart. That is, its purpose isn't to stuff rump steak down unsuspecting tribeswenches, but as part of a sacrificial veneration of the goddess.
But in the Sea Season Dances, the sacrifice might equally well be roasted over the Sacred Wood, and then seethed in its own mother's milk, and then with due ceremony _buried_. The crucial thing, I think, is the sacrifice, rather than the exact form thereof.
> >I don't think of vegetarianism as necessarily universal among CA
> >types
> I do. I'll stick to this cross-culturally.
I have no pressing counter-example here, I'm just unsure how cookiecutterised the cult is, over its considerable range.
The Chalana Arroy we know and love was not, it seems clear, always as widespread and uniform as it is now (however much that is). It was doubtless spread during the Dawn Age Theyalan missionary period, by the the God Learners, or both. But rather than just importing the as-written CA cult wholesale, they drew on the traditions of local healing cults, which partly infused into the parent cult. The "daughter" subcults of CA almost certainly reflect these pre-existing customs, and possibly also the name of the healing goddess concerned.
Now, it may be that these were almost entirely absorbed, remaining only as "subservient" cults. But I find it quite likely that there remain in (parts of) Peloria healers who worship Erissa qua Erissa, and regard Chalana as (at most) an associate. These worthies may have customs (dietary or otherwise) quite different from the CA "norm" we've come to expect to date.
> Since CA is, by popular acclaim, permitted cheese,
In the Barb. Belt at least, hereby acclaimed.
> Maybe in Dara Happa, where there's probably more of a
> monoculture, this may be a problem. There I picture the CA healers as
> fighting against the problem, encouraging the populace to a more
> varied diet, urging them to eat fish and meat (while the CAs get by
> on milk and cheese).
Does Dara Happa have a large dairy agriculture? I could envisage a somewhat different sets of dietary restriction in Peloria, avoiding anything with a sky connection, certainly including bird eggs of any sort. They may also avoid milk and dairy produce due to the animal connection, but see nothing wrong with the odd fish.
Sandy avers that one can't remove a chaos feature, unless it's gained:
> 3) Involuntarily, by an enemy's spell or chaos feature: _can_
> be removed by an immediate successful DI to an appropriate deity.
I basically agree with this (re)classification. Though I'd probably tend to be generous in what an appropriate DI chance should be, and perhaps less enthusiastic than some in inflicting this sort of environmental chaos hazard.
I bet there are other methods, which are at least claimed to work, though. Rigorous heroquest rituals, and strange mystical cults, either of which may amount to illumination, or a step towards being illuminated, though proponents won't advertise them as such, and may not thing of them that way themselves.
Truls Parsson, with pernicketyness after my own heart, states:
> If you eat fish you are not a vegetarian. It's called something else.
A term one hears bandied about is "lacto-vegetarian". While pedants with an ear for etymology (like myself) might think this means "eats veggies and dairy products", many seem to use the phrase to cover "I eat whatever I like, as long as it doesn't actually moo." (I've met soi-disant lacto-vegetarian's who eat fish, and even poultry.)
> I would use people > animals > fish > plants
This is the sort of value-ranking modern veggies would use (and modern persons in general would tend to agree with, whatever phylla they scoff in practice), but don't necessary reflect the priorities of religious-minded pre-modern societies. Here, considerations of ritual purity and self denial are likely to be (at least) as important as abstract moral notions of cruelty and animal welfare (never mind "rights").
Alex.
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