After snipping much tedious windage from David Cake about how his Yelorna from Jarst theory was 'merely a theory' and complaining that the current theory of proto-feminist horse worshippers is 'boring' coz he prefers them to be descended from Star Captains. Perhaps he was sleeping when I some digests ago suggested that Yelorna was the daughter of Ehilm?
Me>>Polaris is older than Yuthuppa therefore his worship cannot have
>>'originated' there.
> You know what I mean. [Polaris] Originated with the people
>who eventually settled in Yuthuppa. Anyone disagree?
I do. To say the cult of Polaris originated in suh and such a place as about as meaningful as saying Sun Worship comes from Raibanth or that Earth Worship originated at Hrelar Amali. Polaris is a universal phenomenon. Cults to him will exist all over the world.
Now no doubt David will backtrack and say he meant the current cult of Polaris as given in da roolz. This is also meaningless. The people who eventually settled Yuthuppa also had cousins in Alkoth and Raibanth who also revered the Sky Gods.
Me>> Furthermore Polaris was not a war god originally so assigning
>>him to Yuthuppa to give them a war god is nonsensical.
>Perhaps he gained the war god role precisely because Yuthuppa had
>no war god?
The leading stellar war cult in the good old days was Arraz. Polaris becomes the premier war god _after_ the Dragonkill War when most of the other Dara Happan war cults were destroyed.
>The Yuthuppan commanders may by and large have been fairly crappy, but
>they have to worship somebody. Or do they just trust in aid from above
>and a favourable horoscope?
They trust in aid from above etc IMHO. The soldiers are merely trained to standfast while the Priests work their magic.
>The only problem I have is that Polaris then seems to occupy a very similar
>niche to Yelm (who also leads the troops, frequently from the back). Do the
>two gods perform different roles (how to distinguish?) or similar roles in
>different places? Why worship Polaris if you are already a Yelmite?
Because the Yelm Cultists have no apparent qualms about getting their hands dirty. Polaris is a _specialized_ cult and his war cult is really only useful if who want to give battlefield commands and/or are turned on by the thought of logistics. Think of the cult of Garzeen Middleman and then you'll have some appreciation of what Polaris is like.
I said that most of the urbans of Dara Happa were members of Yelm the Youth at the least.
> I think this is a vast overstatement. I think most of the upper and
>some of the middle classes are Yelmic (the majority of whom are in Yelm the
>youth or the equivalent Dendara lay membership). But most of the urban
>inhabitants are lower classes without a hope of getting into Yelm, or
>middle class who have not yet made it.
Read the Lunar Empire Writeup. It's explained the Dara Happans sneer at anybody who is not from a city even _if_ he live in the valley and can claim descent from the Sun God. This implies that even the peasants can worship the Sun. Look at Sun County - they've no problem with common farmers worshipping Yelmalio. Look at the Pentans, even the common rider is a initiate of Kargzant. Thus I don't see why Dara Happa should have any problems. If Yelm worship was truly restricted in the manner that you suggest, then it would have been superseded long ago by another solar cult with a more liberal social entrance qualification over the 10,000+ years of Dara Happan history.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #35
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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