I thought I'd take a break from studying for my COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS examination (my understanding of the US Copyright Act and the Berne Treaty is in line with what has already been said - I strongly recommend that y'all don't distribute copyrighted material on your web site), and add my few cents to some of the ongoing discussions.
Between "strangers", Heortling culture is filled with ritual challenges and accepted codes of honor and hospitality. In my opinion, this is Heort's Law, not the accumulation of two millenia of local legal precedents. An example, recently my Taming of Dragon Pass farmer-warriors had the misfortune of being involved in a large inter-tribal battle. King Malan, his personal retainers, and the fyrd of four local clan chiefs fought against King Barngradus, his personal retainers, the sacred women warriors of the Orendanae, and the fyrds of three local clan chiefs and four distant chiefs. For those of you who like numbers, these are my campaign notes:
Full fyrd of the Malani:
Household retainers of King Malan: 2 nobles, 20 huscarls
Isolting: 2 nobles, 10 huscarls, 40 raiders, 150 carls
Orleving: 1 noble, 5 huscarls, 45 carls
Tree Brothers: 3 nobles, 12 huscarls, 125 carls
Hyaloring mercenaries (Lonisi) (ally): 1 noble, 10 huscarls, 50 fyrd-men
Total Force: 9 nobles, 57 huscarls, 40 raiders, 320 carls
(426 warriors)
Full fyrd of the Colymar:
Household retainers of King Barngradus: 3 nobles , 20 huscarls
Ernaldori: 1 noble, 15 huscarls, 50 carls Orlmathi: 2 noble, 12 huscarls, 30 carls Konthasos: 1 noble, 12 huscarls, 40 carlsZethnoring: 1 noble, 10 huscarls, 25 carls Karandoli (ally): 2 nobles, 9 huscarls, 15 carls Varmandi (ally): 3 nobles, 8 huscarls, 20 raiders, 35 carls Orendanae: 3 nobles, 10 huscarls
This leads us into the role of the various warrior cults. In my campaign
jargon - "noble warrior" means a rune level-type, he's a good warrior, has
chain armor, lots of magic and probably surrounded by buddies. In my
campaign jargon, a "huscarl" is any warrior with mail armor and high skill.
The vast majority are genuine hall-warriors. Bloody near every warrior
present at this battle was an Orlanth initiate and probably invoked Orlanth
in his war aspects in order to gain warrior magic. There are three notable
exceptions:
The household retainers of king Malan. These are Humakt initiates - all
twenty of them;
The Grey Dog "huscarls": These are Humakt initiates who invoked Humakt in
order to sever the Grey Dogs and their leader, Lismelder, from Malan.
Forty one Humakt initiates. This has raised quite a few eye-brows; and
The sacred women warriors of the Orendanae. This constitutes all eleven
Babeester Gor initiates in all of Quiviniland.
It should be noted, that this battle had the vast majority of all Humakti between the Creek and the Stream (some sixty odd initiates) and all of the Babeester Gor initiates. Of course it also is 1356.
The battle had three recognizable stages. The first stage consisted of various challenges and insults by the "noble warriors" trying to provoke their opposites into fighting them in front of the whole army (a player-character, who didn't want to fight a challenge was provoked nonetheless). The second stage occurs when friends and kinsmen of one of the "noble warriors" who is doing so well interferes - they start shooting arrows and throwing spears at the winner trying to force him off the field. Of course the near-winner's friends and kinsmen are usually none-too-happy about this and shoot back. Pretty soon you have missile barrages. The third stage occurs when a chief or king can't take watching his fyrd-men get shot up (you know the scenes in "Braveheart" when scores of young Scottish warriors get arrowed - really nasty) and decides to charge. General melee breaks out in long lines consisting of mixed skirmishing and shield walls.
In Taming of Dragon Pass, the Heortlings fight around their clan chief. In a battle, there is one organizational unit - the clan. The clan members follow their chief - not the king. This can create many interesting situations.
So what is the role of the "warrior cults" - Humakt and Babeester Gor - in this set up? Humakt is the god of warriors who exist solely for war, in other words the professional warrior. Malan's weapons-thanes don't farm, and they don't herd, they just hang out in his hall until it is time to fight. Unlike Martin Laurie, I don't think they spend that much time doing RQ2, RQ3 type training, they just loaf around the hall, drinking, quarreling and generally being disliked by the carls. Why does the king put up with them? Well, they are good warriors and they are loyal to the king first. The latter aspect is probably more important. In a culture where everybody has complex loyalties (companions, blood-line, clan kinfolk, marital relations, etc) the initiate of Humakt stands out like a lone sword.
So what about Humakt's fertility? In my campaign, it is a largely irrelevant question. In ToDP the vast majority of Humakti are unmarried - of course, I can't think of a carl who would be willing to have his daughter marry a Humakt worshipper. Few Humakt initiates farm, but then again they are supported by a tribal king. I do think the "Lismelder Humakti" are more focused on the severance aspect of their cult than the Humakt cult at Two-Ridge.
Babeester Gor is a different thing. The sacred women warriors of the Colymar (all ten or so of them) are similar to very violent Vestal Virgins - - they are supposed to be celibate if not necessarily virginal. For those of you who have campaigns with BG player-characters, this might not work - but that is how it is in my campaign. Of course, in my campaign, nobody would ever dream of letting their kids be initiated into either BG or Humakt.
Finally most of the Orlanthi poetry is composed after the battle. After the recent battle between King Malan and King Barngradus, Illig Jarangson of the Varmandi composed the following poem: After the battle, Illig makes a critical compose and speaks the following poem:
The scream of swords,
The clash of shields,
These are true words
On battlefields:
Man sees his death,
Frozen in dreams.
Storm's center was two kings,
Masters of score warrior thanes,
Takers of life and givers of rings,
Both won undying fame
On that red-trailed day.
With their hammered god-bones,
Malan's boon companions
Clove Colymar heir's shield-wall.
They sang Humakt's death song,
Which brings fear to gods and men all.
As edges swing,
Blades cut men down,
Barngradus and Malan,
Earned their renown.
Break not the spell
But silent be:
To you I'll tell
Their bravery:
At the clash of kings
On carrion-field
The Black Spear swings
At blue-stained shield.
When swords anoint
What man is saved?
Who gets this point
Soul deep engraved:
Like thunder loosened
>From Orlanth's hand
Now only one king
Still stands.
[with considerable credit to Snorri Sturluson's epic Egil's Saga]
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #260
WWW at http://rider.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/Rolegame/glorantha.faq.html
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