Your emperoring was magnificent, oh Glittery One. It's just that we Naverian priestess have always taken exception to Brightface's style of rulership - we just aren't allowed to talk about it!;-)
Actually, though, this brings us back to the former distressing thread about how much a priest can deviate from cult ideals and still have access to divine favor. I imagine the DH emperors, being Antirius incarnate, a more or less permanent "conduit" to Yelm. Thus they can get away with _lots_ of things that others couldn't. OTOH, if they're literally the embodiment of Yelmic virtue, why would they want to? (Must look up Empty Emperor myth - FS P.11)
Perhaps those purification rituals help a lot - as long as you purify yourself before worship or attempting to cast solar magic, you're fine.
BTW - I swiped the phrase "impure thoughts" straight from Saudi Arabian
law. (I lived there for several years). I've been wondering lately how
much DH society mirrors traditional Arab society. The attitiudes toward
sex, the low moral character of women, and unclean things are similar. Are
noble women segregated? Veiled - or partially so? (Mind you, in Arab
society woman are segregated for their own protection, not because they're
considered inferior in anyway. Many Saudi women I knew were quite
comfortable with the system.)
An interesting outcome of reducing access to women is a great incease of
public affection between men.
Erik discusses ceratopsian husbandry:
>Someone said something about keeping a rutting Tops at bay
I once went to a lecture at the Seattle Zoo about elephant keeping. They
said that male elephants are so evil tempered during the rut that they are
almost physically impossible to keep. 99% of the adult elephants in
captivity are female, and the males are almost always killed just after
puberty (20 years old or so). It seems nobody can afford to build an
enclosure to safely hold a crazed 7 ton beast. All zoo elephant births are
the product of artificial inseminations. There are, however, intrepid
wildlife biologists who venture into the bush to collect semen from wild
elephants. (This also helps add diversity to captive populations.) Now
_there's_ a plot idea for you...
(When I asked if mahouts in SE Asia worked with only female elephants, the
keeper said they used males, too. If an elephant kills his mahout, the
beastie just gets a new one.)
I would think that neutering a reptile would be tough. Earthly reptiles (and birds) have internal testes - up by the kidneys. Actually, semen gathering would be tricky too, because in reptiles both sexes have a cloaca. I imagine they mate rather like ducks. Anybody know how they make capons?
Cult affiliations of the gazzam: I picture them as more Earth oriented than solar. Perhaps they are the sacred animals of BesElsib (sp?) Shargash's wife? Or sacred to all the earth goddesses in old Peloria? That would leave the DH men playing polo on regular old horses, I'm afraid..... Woops! Solar lapse! They would play with the aid of the Glorious Children of Yelm's Own Steed!
Pam
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