Indeed, I feel a Shargashi feels every bit a part of the great Yelmic religion, and worships Yelm and Shargash both. He acknowledges Yelm as the big leader and mentions him in the prayers and knows he has to do what they say and gives little sacrifices every harvest time. But he is initiated into the mysteries of Shargash, and knows all sorts of cool Shargashi secrets, and prefers them to the boring life of a Raibanthi. A Templar would not desire to be a Franciscan.
>The idea of a division between Shargash
>and Yelm seems to me ugly.
The idea of non-distinction between the two - oh, yeah, Shargash is just Yelm wearing a mask - seems equally ugly. They are separate deities from the same pantheon related in many ways.
>The whole relationship of Shargash with Yelm is the stuff of Myth
>and is _known_ to every Alkothi from the very start. It is replayed
>every year. It is the equivalent of the Ring of Orlanth or the
>Necklace of Pamalt.
Exactly. Just because she's part of the ring, doesn't mean that people think Pamalts wife is just Pamalt wearing a mask. Nor do people think Shargash is just Yelm wearing a mask. But worshipping Yelm means worshipping Shargash as well (as his son and servant), worshipping Shargash means worshipping Yelm the father as well.
>Mere appeals to reason (look up in the sky!) to disprove that
>Shargash is seperate from Yelm do not work because the Alkothi
>knows in his heart that they are.
What do you mean? The Shargashi knows in his heart that Shargash is the loyal son of Yelm, and also knows rather more directly that the Shargashi is not the same person as his own father, so why should he think Yelm is the same person as Shargash?
Which doesn't mean the Yelmic religion is in anyway separate from the Shargashi religion, two things that can be clearly delineated - they are different parts of the same thing.
And to be honest, I think if it really came down to it, and they had an ecclesiastical purity movement again (not that the Lunars would let them), then all this 'they are just masks bit' would be thrown out as Lunar influence, and we'd go back to Yelm is not this and Yelm is not that, and Yelm is not Shargash. Which may not be current Raibanthi practice, but its every bit as mythically true as the current philosophy.
Cheers
David
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #138
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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