As someone who has just popped onto the Glorantha Digest and was swamped with all this great chatter about our great universe, I'd just like to say - - WOW! This sort of email forum really is a fantastic resource, so full support to everyone involved, and to everyone setting up similar thingoes on the net such as the FOES II scheme and the lobbyists for BUTTS. The only problem is finding out about all this stuff!
Anyway, I agree with David Cake -think pantheon intiation is a very important issue. It's something I've been wrestling with for a little while in seting up an Orlanthi campaign from the initiation stage. I think it may be worth looking at things from the perspective of how people experience their lifecycle. In this regard, Mark Smylie's (feel free to castigate me if I got your name wrong) comments about setting up a community worship/ritual/ceremony calendar and a calendar for the important stages of a person's life are really worthwhile. (See the Far Point Stead Calendar in "Questlines" for a starting point). We should really have a good idea of how these events are marked in ritual and thought.
So here's my bit on the pantheon concept (I've tried to condense this AMAP so bear with me). I see the Orlanthi initiation as a combined ceremony inducting the new member into adulthood, family, clan, tribe, custom and religion simultaneously. All these are very closely intertwined in Orlanthi lives.
The initiation ritual, for children, should consist of several parts: A coming of age ceremony, perhaps including a naming ceremony, a religious initiation, and a full worship ceremony. Orlanthi intiation rituals are held every few years. I think there is only one ceremony per clan every few years, not several separate ones for different cults. Thus I hold the coming of age ceremony, a physical ordeal to induct new adults into the hardships of life and mark the end of coddled youth, the day before Orlanth's High Holy Day. Following this, there is an initiation ritual before the main worship ceremony.
At the initiation ceremony, the initiate enters Orlanth's Hall (i.e. the religious community of all Orlanthi pantheon worshippers and their gods and heroes) by sacrificing a point of POW to establish a bond with that community. The establishment of that bond introduces the new initiate to some of the mysteries and mysticism of religious belief (i.e. the mythology embodied in the God/Hero planes). Most people will call upon Orlanth to accept them into his Hall, and will establish their primary bonds with him, and with Ernalda, the other community/ruling deity. Some may call upon one of Orlanth's thanes or friends such as Issaries or Lhankor Mhy, to speak for them and gain entry that way, establishing their main bond with that deity, but still acknowledging and worshipping Orlanth and Ernalda as their deities also. This is, in effect, the first cult initiation. It's followed by a general worship ceremony, the first in which the new initiates will take full part. Note that this day provides a spiritual ordeal for inexperienced clans folk as counterpart to the physical ordeal of the coming of age. By the end of the whole process, they really will feel different!
I think the case of Orlanth is different to the other gods, however, because he embodies the community. He is the law maker, the ruler, the bdoy and life of the clan and everyone in it. Therefore, I think that everyone has established a substantial bond with Orlanth upon entering his Hall, and takes part in his ceremonies as a full initiate. If someone then wants to go and associate with another god within the Hall, and learn the ways of, say farming and plowing from Barntar, they still have access to the basic Orlanthi functions of community. IMO Ernalda would be treated similarly, as both these gods are the fundamental gods for daily life.
I don't think any pantheon intiates need to sacrifice POW to initiate to Orlanth or Ernalda separately just to gain the basic spells and rituals. But they would need to sacrifice again to learn the deeper secrets of the cult. What level this is, exactly, might depend on local circumstances, or might be Acolyte level or perhaps a sort of senior initiate level. There has always been a huge variation in power within the scope of 'initiate'. Perhaps that deserves to be broken down a bit. The speculation on the idea of Secret Cult Lore seems pertinent at this point - you might need to sacrifice POW to establish your commitment to the god/cult in order to gain the required level of Cult Lore for whatever you might need it for - access to certain rituals/spells/hero questing paths etc. That would seem to apply to specialist deities too - it's just that most members of the community would not have the time or interest in building up their knowledge and spiritual bond with specialist deities. The Orlanth subcults are specialist cults in their own right. Only who dedicate themselves to that aspect of Orlanth will be able to gain a high enough level of proficiency and a deep enough spiritual bond, through the sacrifice of POW to gain the powerful abilities of those subcults. Again this probably applies to Ernalda also.
Whichever god was your primary deity, you would follow the ways of all the gods because they are your community leaders. Orlanth is chief so everyone obeys the ways of Orlanth. Ernalda/ or Barntar/ or the local grain goddess is in charge of the harvest, and at harvest time, everyone who is involved pays respect and follows the person in charge of that business. The warriors may not stoop to harvest work (it depends on how you see your local social customs) and would therefore have no knowledge of the rituals, spells and customs of Ernalda/Barntar, but they still respect those deities as community leaders, and pay due regard to them during their own cult observances. Daivd Cake is right IMO, that different members of the community provide different levels of support to their god during rituals. If we establish a very flexible scale of spiritual bonding, based on the idea of Orlanth's Hall, in which members can go to any god and learn the ways of that god which are necessary to that person's life and work, there would be a huge range of support from the community during different rituals.
If we could establish a local calendar of necessary rituals and ceremonies, I think we'd get a pretty rapid idea of how much support there was at any particular time, and whether there was enough support to maintain the necessary levels of contact with the god to renew spells etc. Otherwise, cults for the specialist deities are organised at the tribal level, and any interested party can attend those rituals to gain their teachings and spells.
Note that these comments apply to the hill Orlanthi, not those in cities where specialisation of occupation (and presumably religion) are more pronounced.
That'll do for now. The ramble could go on forever, really, so I'll just see what you have to say to that first.
By the way, I'm desperate to find information on the Sambari tribe and their neighbours (the Balmyr, Balkoth, Dundealos/Enstalos and Kultain/Sylangi). I have all the snippets from 3rd Ed stuff, KoS, and Questlines, but that's precious little. I'd really appreciate it if anyone could send me any info they have from personal campaigns or other published stuff that I haven't seen (such as the tribes in Home of the Bold). You can email me or post it on the digest if its really important.
Thanks for your time everyone.
Pax Vobiscum
Saravan.
Pax Vobiscum
Saravan (saravan_at_perth.dialix.oz.au)
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