>> I think the mainstream Sartarites in effect marry into
>> the Humakt temple (when you marry into a new clan, you become a member of
>> that clan, but still have ties to your original clan).
>
>I have to do a double-take when David expounds on Orlanthi custom, as
>I'm rarely sure if he's talking of Orlanthi-all Orlanthi, or his own
>Ralian lot. But in Sartar, I don't think one "marries into" a clan
>in this way. Rather, you're still a part of your own clan, but have
>(very) strong ties to your spouse's.
True, since this is my opinion it's only valid for East Ralios Orlanthi in my game, but I think it makes sense as a practical matter. If I marry into a different clan or tribe, I move there (otherwise my spouse has married into my clan). Since I am no longer surrounded by my own kinsmen, I had better be able to get support from the clan I'm surrounded by (over half the people around, if you count children). Otherwise, I can't even rely on my own children!
As I see it, your new clan is responsible for honor-price, wergild, etc. Your birth clan is more than welcome to help out with payments or vengeance, but they may be far away. While you are still a member of your original clan, you would be well-advised to act as if you're a member of your spouse's.
As a practical matter, in East Ralios it's almost always women marrying into another clan, and women get involved in matters of wergild only rarely (the fact that all women PCs in my campaign have been Vingans notwithstanding)*. This limits the problems of two clans being involved.
If my married sister is killed, I might be upset and want to kill her killer, but legally that responsibility is her husband's (and his clan's). If the killer chooses to pay wergild, it goes to her husband's clan, not mine. If I then kill the killer, this would not legally be considered vengeance (I should have asked her husband's clan to refuse compensation). If no wergild was paid, and I kill the killer, that precludes her husband's clan from taking vengeance.
Now replace "married sister" with "Humakti brother" and "husband's clan" with "Temple of Humakt" and this is more or less how I see it working in Sartar. (The Ralian Humathi never sever kinship, since Humath and Orlanth are twins [see Broken Council Guidebook]. Becoming a Humathi isn't quite as big a deal in East Ralios as becoming a Humakti in Sartar.)
>Even if this were so, it still seems a very loose comparison, since
>in a "normal" Sartarite marriage, it's the wife who goes to live with
>her husband's clan.
And doesn't the Humakti usually leave his clan home for the temple? Most clans probably can't support a temple to Humakt, after all. The Humakti is still my brother (assuming he hasn't severed that) but he no longer fights at my side, and he has his own companions to avenge him now.
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #218
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