>The extent of the active courting of
>Valind results in the rune spell of Snow, so i guess it's not so active
>after all.
What if they performed Valind HeroQuests rather than merely joining the cult? That way, they could bring down snowstorms and so on with relative ease. Also, the cult of Valind is associated with Himile who has a variety of Cold magics available.
I am sure that people in Canada in midwinter will let you know of the effectiveness of the Snow spell.
Michael also draws some God Learnerish conclusions about Holy Days (shared mythspace, combined Holy Day/High Holy Day activities). While I would agree that some associated cults would indeed share rituals on Holy Days, especially when more than one deity participated in the same GodTime deed, I would not agree that this is always the case. At the Paps or in Esrolia, all Earth cults would be worshipped in the same area by the same people at the same time, so a mythic experience could well be shared to some extent. However, away from those Earth bastions it is certainly not the case.
Why should the Aldrya (wild mother, weed mother, forest mother) bear much relation to that of the Crop Goddesses (Pela, Frona, Esrola, Ralia, Dorasta etc)? These are all Earth Goddesses, yet the best similarities that I can think of is that they all went to sleep when Flamal died and that they all enable plants to grow. The rest of the mythos is very disimilar and, I would guess, so are the festivals. There may be similarites between the Grain Goddesses and Ernalda, for instance, because they are culturally similar Goddesses. The festivals of Asrelia (Goddess of the Plentiful Earth, Guardian of the Earth's Riches) would be different to that of Ernalda (Mother Earth, Fertile Earth, Wife).
Those who believe that all Earth Goddesses are manifestations of the same Deity would believe that this is so, but I do not (despite the God Learner explanations in the Wyrms Footnotes/Wyrms Footprints article on the Earth Goddesses). Even though the cults are similar in some ways, they are also drastically different and should be treated as such.
Michael on the Light Bringers Quest:
You seem to think that the LBQ (I took ages to work this acronym out when I first joined the Digest - why can't people use English rather than stupid acronyms/abbreviations?) takes place on Orlanth's High Holy Day, rather than in Sacred Time. Well, Orlanth, in common with many Lightbringers, has a Holy Day in Sacred Time, so you could have the Lightbringers Quest there if you want. It must be said, though, that Sacred time IS the place for the Lightbringers Quest. This is because the world order breaks down and must be reinforced here. The Lightbringers Quest takes 14 days (in the Short Form) - it fits neatly into Sacred Time. Also, Sacred Time is outside normal time - in essence it is a reflection of GodTime, the perfect place for HeroQuests.
Having said all that, I cannot remember where it says in the sources that the Lightbringers Quest is performed in Sacred Time, but I know that it is.
David Cake writes some interesting things on the Dara Happan/Peasants theme.
Lodril peasants support the Yelm cult and Dara Happan social system by being peasants and not changing. Nothing supports a class system better than the members of the class system - look at England for instance. While there are peasants looking to the Yelm cult for leadership, there will always be a need for the Yelm cult.
Monster Man is only awakened by the actions of Bad Emperors. When the rebellion occurs, the Yelmic Order is retained but the Bad/Shadow Emperor is defeated. This is what happened to Sheng Seleris. The Gorgorma version of this defends women against abuse and, once again, defeats the Bad Men rather than the system. I don't think that Gorgorma cares about the Yelmic system one way or the other, but she does support her sister Dendara and would not oppose her.
People not belonging to the cult of Yelm Imperator can be Nobles in Dara Happa - any nobelwoman satisfies this immediately. Howeverm they are regarded as inferior by the Yelmic society. Lunar and Carmanian nobles fall into this category as do those raised from the masses. In my opinion, those born into the cult of Yelm may be raised to the rank of Noble and can be adopted into the cult of Imperator as an initiate. Rune Levels of Imperator are Kings, Emperors and Heads of Houses. Any member of Imperator is a Noble, even if he lives in a shack in the country and has never seen the Court, so the number of nobles increases, assuming that noblemen marry and have at least one son each who survives to adulthood. This also means that there are a lot of nobles around with little to do - hence the outlet of the Dart Wars. In my game, a PC was elevated to the Yelm Imperator cult from being a Yelmalian, but he had to HeroQuest to prove himself worthy - it helped that the Red Emperor adopted him and spoke for him amongst the cult of Yelm - but this should be a one-of-a-kind event, normally impossible.
And Finally.....
Some people seem to have the idea that "established" contributors are somehow "better" than new ones. This means that some people can feel intimidated about expressing an opinion on the Digest or posting questions or articles on the Digest. This is a load of rubbish. It does not matter if someone has been on the Digest since day 1 or if they have only just looked at the Digest today - it is a place for ideas, discussions and opinions, preferably in a _reasoned_ and _polite_ manner. So if you have an opinion or comment or want to ask questions then go ahead - I did as soon as I joined the Digest and hardly anyone has complained. As long as you don;t insult people on the Digest, then nobody should mind what you say - some people actually read all the stuff here and comment on it - amazing. If you prefer Lurking, then fair enough, but don't be put off by what other people might think about the strength/depth or importance of your question/comment/article - one person scared off writing to the Digest is one person too many.
Simon
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