My impression is that Barntar is an associate of Orlanth, and Orlanth an associate of Barntar - and in normal practice this manifests as Barntar being a major subcult of Orlanth. However, when the Lunar Empire bans the Orlanth cult (which I don't think they did everywhere), which has aspects including troublemaking Orlanth the warrior, and lightning wielding priests, they wouldn't possibly ban the Barntar sub-cult, which is of great agricultural importance. The Orlanthi take advantage of this by telling the Lunars they don't worship Orlanth Vingkot or Orlanth Thunderous any more, just Barntar, and denying that they perform banned Orlanthi rituals. Of course, they do perform the banned rituals, but they make efforts at secrecy and lie to local Lunar officials.
Arachne Solara
Peter M
>On such grounds, I strongly disagree that her cult is native to
>Peloria. We know enough about the mythology of Dara Happa and
>surrounding regions and not a hint of spider worship is known.
I'll agree that the reverence of Arachne Solara most likely did not originate there, and if it did it was in an area whose myths are so far unrevealed. Dara Happans of the time of Plentonius didn't know of her. The question was, though, do the Pelorians know of her - I think that modern Pelorians know of her and revere her, and as our knowledge of the changes in Pelorian religion between the Dawn and the modern era is a little sketchy, I don't think we can speculate with certainty when it was introduced.
Its worth noting that GOG Prosopaedia says she is 'Universal'. I'm certainly a bit wary of taking that at face value, but I think at least the Manirians and Pelorians all know of her, probably many others besides (I suspect she was rather a Gode Learner favourite, at least in theory if not practice).
BTW Arachne Solara is sometimes the Secret Creature revealed at the end of Gerran ceremonies (in the Entekosiad, Green Pages edition). This is very important - they don't just know of her, she is known to manifest to initiates at the end of one of their most sacred and mystical rites (admittedly a sect of deranged self-mutilators, but sacred deranged self-mutilators). They would presumably think she is pretty important. The evidence is especially strong considering how many detailed descriptions of Gloranthan religious ceremonies we have i.e. damn few.
>Interestingly the Terminal Debate sorts out who gets to *confront*
>Arachne Solara. So what are the Lunars trying to do?
I'm not sure that they necessarily mean confront in the sense of conflict. Or maybe they are defending the right of the Red Goddess (and other Lunar offences against nature) to exist? Defending the Red Goddess and her role outside time?
>I never thought of her as an actual spider, nor really associated with
>arachnids in any way. The "spider" part is a metaphor, because the
>sunspider spins the webs that hold the world together.
As Peter points out, the Cragspider cult at least think there is a connection (and they seem to be onto something - that funny DI ability they have indicates something unusual). And she is said to represented as a spider, at least - presumably the aforementioned initiates see her as a spider. Makes a speculative First Council era introduction of Arachne Solara to Pelorian knowledge seem plausible - I think Joergs speculation that the participation of Cragspider in the First Council/ Osentalka project let to widespread knowledge and acceptance of Arachne Solara is a good one.
Cheers
David
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