PM> So most Medieval Christians worshipped only the Saints and not Jesus because he was the King and therefore only fit to be worshipped by the Nobility?
Christ is the savior of the common man, not the Emperor of the Universe. (IMO, the closest Christ parallel in DH is Murharzarm.) As I understand medieval Catholicism, most peasants prayed to Mary, who was an intercessionary for Jesus, who was himself an intersessionary to God. (Remember - these people weren't allowed to/able to read the bible themselves - that was the clergy's perogative. Martin Luther blew the lid off that, and there was lots of associated violence.) Sure, everyone worshipped God, too, but wasn't it possible to pray to God only through a priest? (Disclaimer: my Catholicism Lore is not high.)
My Dara Happa is a parallel, with the highest class of people - closely tied to the priesthood - acting as the intersessionaries to the highest deity. (Some of this comes from all the refereces to Yelm being "high" and, presumeably, hard to reach. Not as tough as Dayzatar, but not as easy as Lodril. Thus all the Yelmic geasa I propose. And, yes - in My Glorantha, if a Yelm Priest wants to be *certain* his Sunspear works, he'd better live right.)
Sure, Yelm has lots of great abilities - fighting, healing, observation, fertility - but these are mostly available through the associate cults. (My guess is that the best healers in traditional DH are initiated to Erissa, Yelm's "daughter". Scribes initiate to Buserian, warriors to Yelm's warrior sons, etc.) Additionally, Lodril is open to everyone. What Yelm does *exclusively* is rule.
This still doesn't exclude Peter's model of many aspects of the Yelm cult being open to the majority of urban Dara Happans. But I prefer to cover these with subcults. It makes good use of those 100 gods and goddesses in Yelm's Court!
DC> If person A is initiated into the cult of Issaries, and person B
is
initiated into the cult of Orlanth according to the old rules, we now
know
that they are both initiates of the Orlanth pantheon. What does this
mean?
IMO, it means that
( Specializing takes time in game-terms, though, so it's difficult to walk too many paths of even a single deity.)
Another part of actually being initiated to a *diety*, is that you learn special "pitfall" secrets. Frex, Yelmies learn that Kazkurtem is a full aspect of Yelm the Emperor, as Lodrilli learn that they, too, can become Monster Man, and Orlanthi learn that Ragnalar can be found within themselves, and Ernaldans learn that the Great Mother might just as soon kill folk as help them. These "secrets" are not widely publicised outside the initiated! Priests and rune lords learn even more secrets, which allow them to walk more obscure and dangerous paths than the average initiate.
Just IMO.
Pam
Powered by hypermail