I still can't get a clear picture of this in my own head. In Pavis, the Lunars sanction a puppet priest and his temple, and outlaw and hunt down anyone who follows the anti-Lunar priest or who doesn't worship at the right temple. Is this how it works in Sartar?
I have the idea that it is a little more harsh - that they actually outlaw all worship of Orlanth. But they can't actually suppress _all_ open worship of Orlanth due to limitations of resources. At the tribal level the Lunars make sure there are no worship ceremonies. If the whole tribe tries one, it constitutes an act of mass rebellion and the Lunars send in troops and priests to slaughter everyone linked to the rebels. Tribal leaders have learned that this is a _really_ dangerous thing to do, so mostly they submit in the open and don't conduct open worship ceremonies. It is more difficult to police at the clan level, at least in areas that are more difficult to access. Here, maybe it goes along the lines of the Pavis situation. As long as the clan keeps quiet, pays its taxes and bows to the Lunars in public, they don't really care. If they start causing trouble the troops move in and the first thing they target is the priest and the holy places. A lot of this happened already in 1602-3 and later.
I just don't think that they have enough resources to entirely root out open worship - and I think it would be pretty hard to conceal a gathering of several hundred people at clan level (especially when everyone - including the Lunars - knows when it's going to be - High Holy Day). So they suppress outward signs of rebellion and crush the troublemakers, and then use 'peaceful' persuasion to help. This is the bit about encouraging Sartarites to join the Seven Mothers and so on. That is, if you worship at this temple you'll pay less tax and have more privileges than your neighbours. This is also a political thing. Clans whose chieftains side with the Lunars (even if they don't join the Seven Mothers Cult) get special benefits like troops to keep them in power against the chance of a revolt by their own people, and leniency when they go and raid their enemies, and help when their enemies come to raid them back.
Of course throughout all this, worship of Orlanth is still banned, so the Lunars can walk in any time and slaughter all the worshippers at a ceremony (if they can manage it), or people who are known to have been at a ceremony, without any other provocation. On the secrecy bit - of course anyone who worships in secret is a rebel. Otherwise why would they need to worship in secret? They are the Cold Wind types and are automatically marked for death if the Lunars know who they are.
Does this sound like a reasonable interpretation? Are they actually more harsh or more lenient (very unlikely IMO) on the outward signs of worship?
Pax
Saravan.
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