DC>> Do modern Pelorians acknowledge the 'classic' (ie God Learnerish)
>>Celestial Court, or only the one from GRoY?
>GRoY, GRoY, GRoY. Or, maybe even more likely - the Entekosiad.
>Point is - GRoY & Entekosiad match, the God Learners account doesn't.
Why do you think that the God Learner account doesn't match?
The God Learner Celestial Court has the eight court members (Uleria, Kargan Tor etc), the Empress Glorantha and Yelm the Emperor. The Pelorian Celestial Court has the Eight Sons or Lights (Shargash, Deumalos etc), Entekos and Yelm. Yelm is Yelm. Entekos is obviously the Empress Glorantha. The other members are more tricky to match up (meaning I can't do it) but Shargash is undoubtedly Kargan Tor.
Of course this is why I think the Pelorians don't use the God Learner system: they have an indigenous system of their own and it works fine thank you very much.
Ian Gorlick:
Speaks on my Somash thesis
>However I do not see that we have any reason to assume that the Somashi
>wear women's clothes (or any style of clothing that the Yelmalions might
>consider feminine) or that they smoke large quantities of hazia.
We don't have any reason whatsoever to assume that they do such a thing but OTOH we have no reason to assume that such a thing is alien to the Somashi of Teshnos. As Ian Gorlick knows, there is virtually sod-all in print about the Fire Cults of Teshnos.
The Somashi do not wear women's clothing. Only the Priests do (as the restriction applies only to Sun Lords) under my proposal. Furthermore the Teshnans do not consider what they wear to be women's clothing anymore than the Pope or the Ayatollah consider themselves to be blatant travestites. The perception that Somashi clothing is feminine comes from the viewpoint of the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass where the Chiefs and Kings wear pants.
Now it is known that the Teshnan Army is hopeless. The Praxians know it as a land of weak warriors, beautiful women and powerful magicians. A good way to make this army hopeless IMO is to have no officers but subject to direct orders by the Priests. So when Monrogh originally brought the cult over, the fighting leaders would have worn Teshnan robes because that was the way it was done in glorious Teshnos. So when Varthanis comes over to defend Sun County against the Trolls, the first thing he sees is that his officers are in dresses! So he bans it and the prohibition about Sun Lords disguising themselves as women is born.
The only element of Travestitism actually comes from Varthanis II who supported the Somash cult *because* he was rebelling against the strict social mores of his father and he liked dressing in "women's clothing" which as a warrior, he was prohibited from doing so by his father's code.
As for the Hazia, I have no problem with Teshnans reaching their gods by the use of mind-altering substances in a religious context. It partially explains their famous lethargy.
>Peter seems to have made these up by assuming that the Yelmalion prohibitions
>against men dressing as women and against hazia were written specifically with
>the Somashi in mind. There is no evidence to support this.
There is no evidence in the Pavis Boxed Set to support the following:
Yet this did not stop de MOB from creating them for Sun County. So why should I have to *find* non-existant evidence to support my theory? I'm making it up just like MOB did.
>It seems unreasonable to start defining the cult of Somash based upon some
>prohibitions in Sun County, especially when we are lacking any evidence that
>Somash even exists in Sun County, much less that these prohibitions were
>promulgated with Somash in mind.
I can point out that Monrogh actually visited Teshnos and recieved the Vision of the Many Suns. Since the Oceans were Closed at the time, he must have passed through the River of Cradles. So when he came back from Teshnos to Sartar bearing the vision of the Many Suns, he must have brought some Teshnan practices with him. What would have they been like? What was the effect of them in Sun County. That's what I attempted to explain. If you can show a flaw other than the lack of evidence, then I'd like to hear it.
>The prohibition is targetted against the traditional enemies of Sun County,
>the nomads. Nomad religion is mostly shamanic. Shamans often practice
>cross-dressing as part of setting themselves outside their societal taboos.
Hsunchen Shaman do this, but we have no evidence that Praxian Shaman also do this as it conflicts with the Players Book statement that in Praxian culture:
'Gender roles are strictly divided with no room for cross-over' p12 Players Book, Genertela
Also Ian appears to have forgotten that Female Animal Riders would not wear long flowing skirts as it is inappropiate for their nomadic lifestyle and I do not believe they ride side-saddle.
Lastly the practice applies to Shamans whereas most nomad rulers of Sun County would have been Khans who would wear male clothing.
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