Lunars in Sartar; Somash in Prax

From: Nick_Brooke_at_deloitte.touche.co.uk
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 96 13:35:35 GMT



Saravan writes, casually:

> It took the Carolingians a good thirty years to subdue those dang Saxons
> and convert them from Paganism, through more or less the same means.

As a fellow Dark Age historian, professional courtesy requires that I ask Saravan whether he *really* thinks the Lunars are pursuing a policy of forcible conversion to the Lunar way, with the death penalty prescribed for any Sartarite speaking a stave of Orlanthi "poetry" or not attending Lunar worship services on Lunar holy days. If not, the means are hardly "more or less the same", are they?

Charlemagne's assault on the pagan Saxons was twofold: vigorous persecution of any trace of pagan practices (death penalty for old women reading the tea-leaves), coupled with vigorous persecution of any lapse from Christian practices (death penalty for failing to observe the Lenten fast). I do *not* think the Lunar policy in occupied Sartar is comparable: they offer inducements to convert, rather than slaughtering everyone who doesn't, and show their normal tolerance of indigenous religions and cults which are compatible with (and able to be assimilated by) the Lunar Way. YGMV, of course, but let's not go OTT.

> Might the Lunars allow Orlanth worship by subservient clans whose
> troublesome members have already been purged?

Whyever not? Outlaw the troublemakers, but don't provoke the rest of the populace into uprising. I'm sure there are exiled Wind Lords wandering the highlands of Sartar preaching armed insurrection, but I'm also sure there are Rainmakers and Storm Voices and Thanes in almost every clan steading, continuing "worship as normal" and urging their followers to wait until the Secret Wind starts to blow...

> I can see that the Pavis situation is different, in that the clan and
> tribal ties don't need to be broken there.

Another difference is that Orlanth is not the ruling deity of Pavis: the cult of Pavis fulfils this role, and that's what the Lunars are trying to assimilate ("marry to the Goddess"). As you say, it would be easy to ban Orlanth worship in the city, and the occupiers have declined to do this. Moreover, potential troublemakers (like Krogar Wolfhelm) are allowed to go freely about their business, so long as they refrain from challenging Lunar rule -- in this respect, a tamed "wild" Orlanthi (a quiescent Wind Lord) is more useful to the Empire than a tame Orlanthi (like Faltikus the Good).

Look at the leniency of Fazzur's policy after Starbrow's rebellion (cf. "Wyrms Footprints" or "King of Sartar"), then try telling me that the Lunars would kill any Orlanthi leader they can catch....

___
Ian writes:

> You can't possibly write up the cult of Somash without having a big
> influence on the eventual write-up of Teshnos.

But you don't need to write up "the cult of Somash" to postulate that some Sun Domer priests might try importing the religious use of intoxicants and funny foreign robes to xenophobic, intolerant Sun County.

Kiwi Peter isn't saying the Teshnan Somash priests "cross-dress" -- he's saying that wearing a style of garment favoured by the Somash priests of Teshnos is considered by arch-traditionalists of Sun County to constitute "disguising yourself as a woman". Remember, these are the people who think dying your beard blond would violate the same cultic rule!

And we know intoxicants are found in Teshnos (cf. Solf), a land famous for its lethargy. Maybe hazia is the *local* drug of choice in Sun County for flying to the Sun in an ecstatic trance; we know that opium is found in the East, and might well be used there in rituals.

Methinks Ian doth protest too much. There's a lot of common ground between his and Peter's views of Sun County, and I'd hate to see this small dispute exaggerated or inflamed unnecessarily.



Nick

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