According to Peter Metcalfe, the priestly class is insignificant in population terms. This means to me that, at least in agrarian societies, the number of people devoted to full time religion will be small. So there will be lots of "farmer/Barnatar priests", "huscarl/Humakt priests", etc. My thinking though is that RW figures may understate the number of people who can be devoted to religion full time. Take the example of a Chalana Arroy priestess. In economic terms, she can socially justify herself by the increased productivity of the clan she lives with due to fewer productive clan members dying or being disabled by illness and injury. (Think about it. Suppose she saves ten people a years from becoming too disabled (or dead) to work. Would a clan chief be willing to pay her room and board? And can Chalana Arroy priestesses heal sick cows? I dunno. Sure would be useful.) Clans that had some mechanism for supporting Chalana Arroy priestesses would then be (and be seen to be) more successful than others that did not.
Also, about these "expendables". Do they have a place in Orlanthi society? When I hear of them, I think of most of the population of late Rome. I just don't see many of them in Orlanthi clans. (And what few there would be would be, say, Eurmal initiates?)
GL Suns:
Peter Metcalfe:
>The Words 'Elmal' and 'Yelm' are not Brithini in origin.
Well, I didn't say they are. I said the God Learners (who were not Brithini, but may have had Brithini linguistic roots) were at work. If they used their normal methods, the damage they inflicted might never have been noticed by the victims. Before their work, the words may not have been GL in origin, but afterwards, they would be. (But, if you don't believe in the "names have power" thesis, it won't matter to you.) IMG, you can't live between Seshnela and the Holy Country without being affected by what the God Learners did (and is difficult even outside those regions). In particular, Elmal was a GL invention, intended to give the Orlanth pantheon some fire/light powers. The interesting question for me (IMG) is whether they intended to subsume the Yelmalio cult entirely.
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