As the resident Heortling Orlanth-ologist amongst the Seattle Farmers Cooperative (David Dunham is the resident Ralian Orlanth-ologist and Pontiff of Grazerology, Pam Carlson is our expert on all things Pelorian with a particular and fearsome speciality in Shargash and dogs, and Martin Laurie is our expert in all things warlike and nasty - except Abba of course :>), I thought I'd make a few comments on this.
First off, at least in my ToDP campaign, initiation into Orlanth is the initiation into adulthood and into your clan. A not-adult is initiated by his godi and various clan leaders - not by a priest into a temple. For those of you who remember my Cults of Orlanth (which can be read on David Dunham's fabulous webpage) - this is the basic cult of Orlanth. The ties of the cult IS the ties of the clan for adult men.
It is important to emphasize that this "Clan Cult" of Orlanth (with godi - acolytes as the cultic leaders) is a CLAN CULT, not a tribal cult. Young Varmandi men are initiated into their clan and into the ways of Orlanth at the same time with the same ceremony. For the Heortlings, I've called this the Cult of the Second Son (who first initiated Heort).
This cult is not the RQ 2 Orlanth cult we all remember. It provides a basic panoply of common divine magic and some specialty spells. It is the cult of the CLAN and largely defines the spiritual life for adult men of the clan.
After initiation into adulthood, in many clans a man is then initiated into the mysteries of Barntar. This initiation (requiring a ceremony but no POW loss) demonstrates to the man that the path of Orlanth is the path a man must take to tame and run his stead. This is also a clan cult. There are no "Priests of Barntar", only a member of the clan who leads the Barntar ceremonies (usually a clan godi).
For many men, that's as far as it goes. A man can be a good member of his clan and a good adult in Orlanthi society being initiated into his clan cult and knowing the rites of Barntar.
However, other cults of Orlanth exist which are not necessarily clan cults. These are more what RQ2 and RQ3 describe. They are organized around temples - usually tribal cultic centers. For instance, in my ToDP campaign, there is a cult of Orlanth the Thunderer centered on Clearwine, which my Varmandi PCs (who are NOT members of the Colymar tribe at this time) must travel to in order to worship OT. This tribal cult creates a cultic association beyond the clan, but all of my PCs hold their loyalty to their clan as being far more important than their loyalty to this tribal cult. It is the clan cult that defines the man, the sub-cult merely adds to this basic definition.
Other tribal cults include various Orlanth the Warrior subcults (including Walind the Ram up in Syllia, Jandan Adventurous at Fox Hollow in Culbrealand, Orlanth the Adventurer at Clearwine, etc.), Orlanth the Wise (also called Orlanth Aeolus - located in Hendreikiland), and, of course, Orlanth Rex.
Furthermore, many clans worship their own localized aspects of Orlanth - including Lawspeaker, Goodvoice, etc., not to mention localized Orlanth the Warrior subcults (like Vingkot Victorybringer, etc.).
It is the tribal cults which are most capable of conflicting with clan loyalties, sometimes even with tribal loyalties (in the case of inter-tribal cults) - although the rise of the Alakoring Kingship rites have minimized the threat that inter-tribal cults pose to tribal leaders. However amongst the rural majority - these tribal cults have considerably less relevance than the clan cults.
It is in the cities (which are basically tribal or intertribal centers) that the tribal cults achieve prominance. In Clearwine of 1350, the cults of Orlanth the Thunderer, the Adventurer and Rex are more prominent than any local clan cult - since the tribal center is the meeting ground for all the confederated clans (and often a religious/market ground for nearby, non-confederated clans).
Finally, there are those weird, other cults. These are followed by folk who either never initiated into their clan cult (strangers all of them!) or clan folk that later learned the strange mysteries of the host of lesser gods. The deeper mysteries of Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, Chalana Arroy, Elmal, or other gods may have an independent cultic existence beyond their worship within the clan cult. My previous post on Elmal was how my ToDP campaign deals with the independent cultic existence of one of these cults. A similar write-up exists for these other cults.
In other words, don't worry about the Orlanth cult disrupting the clan. If anything worry about how the Orlanth clan cult tends to reinforce kinship bonds to the point where most clans view themselves as the autonomous center of the world, who distrust all strangers and are maddeningly provincial. For proof - just read Korol's Saga.
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
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