Sure. But when the Yelmic priest tells you storm powers are troublesome and bad, the presence of the Shargashi in the Yelmic pantheon is not really going to be a strong counterargument.
'hey, its not true that all of the storm are bad, look at Shargash, he is into storm powers, and he is a good guy.'
'A dangerous, homicidal, terrifying guy that happens to be on our side, you mean.'
'errr... yeah.'
>>and the Southern Pelorians, who are pretty close to Orlanthi in many ways
>(as Jeff has pointed out).
>
>Not pretty close to Orlanthi - are Orlanthi.
Well, I'd say were Orlanthi, and are begining to vary a bit more. But we would be quibbling over definitions - I think we both have pretty much the same conception of what the Southern Pelorians are actually like. Culturally, the Southern Pelorians are Orlanthi as opposed to Dara Happan or 'Pelorian'. But when we are talking culture, we are using those terms in an unusual way, where 'Orlanthi' does not imply worshipping Orlanth, and 'Pelorian' does not apply to everyone who lives in Peloria. In this sense, yes, the Southern Pelorians are 'Orlanthi' but that doesn't mean I want to refer to, say, the Fazzurites, as Orlanthi, even though culturally they are Orlanthi not Pelorian.
Andrew Joelson
> I imagine that the Kitori do have Shades & Crush, and that the
>'Lunarized' Orlanthi of Vanch, Talastar, etc do have access to Lunes.
>It's the Sartarites that are hung up on 'Storm-only' mode that don't.
'Storm-only'? The 'Storm Only' Sartarites use Storm, Earth, and Light powers quite happily. Mainstream Sartarite tribes avoid darkness powers in general, and have myths of opposition to them. Because of this, the Kitori have to cut themselves off from some Sartarite religious practices somewhat (Elmal, all those Orlanth myths about beating up on trolls) in order to maintain their strong darkness connections (not that the Kitori think of it that way, but the Kitori know that they will never be truly at peace with the other Orlanthi tribes). But that variant exists.
And similarly, there are people within the Pelorian culture that use Storm powers. But adherents of the mainstream Lunar or Dara Happan religions generally do not. And due to all the myths about Storm being bad and troublesome (or alternately servile and unimportant - Dara Happan Entekos, frex), gaining powers of storm cuts you off somewhat from mainstream Lunar or Dara Happan religious practice - but variants do exist that gain Storm powers, such as the Shargashi. And the Lunar empire is willing to use them.
But it seems like what you were asking was not 'why don't there exist some variant Pelorian religions that access storm powers' but 'why doesn't the mainstream Lunar religion use storm powers?'. Well, because their religion doesn't give them access to storm powers directly, its as simple as that. So meeting Lunars that have storm powers is as odd, or even odder, than meeting Orlanthi with Darkness powers. Which doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but it does mean it doesn't happen routinely.
Cheers
David
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #175
Powered by hypermail