They are ordinary elves (mostly brown), but the Stinking Forest is not an elfwoods. That is, it is a normal forest which has some elves living in it.
Their relationships are: a) Tusk Riders; aloof b) the Lunar Empire; aloof but suspicious c) Sartar; very little contact
Hasni Mubarak
>However, the "Yanafal Tarnils is BOTH an independent cult and a subcult
>of the 7-mommies" solution is just bonkers.
Look at it like this. The Seven Mothers is an "artificial" cult constructed by the Lunar Empire to be worshiped on the frontiers. As individuals or societies progress, the Seven Mother cult is gradually replaced by the individual religions.
I believe that the 7 Mother cult is practically unknown in the interior of the Empire, and that it is a relatively recent cult -- surely no more than a century or two old.
Another way of looking at it is that it's not really a cult, but just a politico-magical organization.
On the other hand, it's not improper to consider the Lunar religions as being _entirely_ "not really cults". The Orlanthi formal cult structure as described in Cults of Prax is, IMO, correct as it applies to the Orlanthi. However, I don't think it applies to other cultures.
Look at how hard it was to shoehorn in the Way of Waha into Cults of Prax. Does anyone really think that the Praxians have a formal "cult" of Waha and a formal "cult" of Eiritha, with Storm Bull on the side? I think that the Praxian religion consists of their whole lifestyle. Sure there are Men jobs and Women jobs, and some of these jobs are religious, but it's clear that Praxian clans don't have separate religious & political power structures. The Lunar religions are also not cults in the formal sense, but something quite different. Ditto Pent, Hsunchen, the West, & the Doraddi.
>There ought to be a game mechanic for
>determining if a character knows where he is. There is World Lore but,
>there should another skill.
Why isn't World Lore good enough all by itself?
Chris Bell wrote
> I thought that a Large Minority of Pent Horse Nomads worshipped
> Orlanth (RQ3 Deluxe, Glorantha Book).
Dave Dunham
>West King Wind is identified as Orlanth. I believe this is as accurate as
>Herodotus saying that the Scythians worshipped Mars. And even if they do
>worship the same god, I don't think it makes them Orlanthi.
And in what sense did the Scythians not worship Mars? I'm sure that the storm god worshiped by the Pentans would be identified by a Sartarite as Orlanth, and that Orlanth would be identified by a Pentan as West King Wind. In the same way, East King Wind = Storm Bull. The God Learners didn't get it wrong, after all. Their destruction proves their accuracy.
But as Dave says, they are not Orlanthi in the slightest.
Peter Metcalfe
>Likewise that book claims that the Pentan nomads also worship Yelm.
>This too is known to be false as they apparently worship the Sun by
>the name of Kargzant.
This is NOT false. Yelm is the Sun. So is Kargzant. How does the use of a different name & cult structure make the Pentans not worship Yelm?
>This is not merely a question of the Pentans worshipping Orlanth by
another >name - many of the Orlanthi practices and doctrines are totally
foreign to >Storm Pentans.
You are exactly wrong here, the Pentans DO worship Orlanth by another name. Just as they worship Yelm by another name. The (cultural) Orlanthi practices & doctrines have nothing to do with the god, only with the way he is perceived.
>Slavery is an Orlanthi practice. Orlanthi have practiced slavery
>since the dawn of time and their ancestors (the Ram People, the
>Andam Horde) have done also likewise. If Orlanth detests slavery,
>he has been strangely silent to his Wind Voices.
Orlanth is in favor of freedom, and slavery is considered to be an undesirable condition. This has nothing to do with whether it is practiced or not among the Orlanthi barbarians. An Orlanthi thrall is considered to be inferior to a free man, a humbled condition.
In Dara Happa, slavery is a fact of life. It is not bad to be a slave. It just is.
In Prax, slavery is a condition imposed from outside and no moral obluquy is associated.
Sandy
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