IMG, there is a connection between broos, goats and chaos -- though this may be more a "scapegoating" thing (whereby, say, the Orlanthi *make* certain goats represent chaos in their rituals, rather than all goats anywhere being Chaotic) than a universal Truth.
IMG also, the economic arguments so ably put by recent posters have full force: better a sheep than a goat, better a cow than a sheep, but better a goat than starvation. Offer goat-milk to your cousins from Rotroot when they come calling, and they won't stay long.
> We are told that the entire population of Peloria was divided up
> into five cults to be the intellect of the Grand Dragon. Given
> such grandiose schemes...
A word of caution: Stephen used to believe that these were five pre-existing Dara Happan cults, essentially unchanged by the EWF. You may be talking at cross-purposes here.
For my part, I am *delighted* to accept that the Sun Dome Temples in Prax and Dragon Pass contain relics from the era of the Dragon Sun, for those with eyes to see -- much like Jeff Richards' fine 'Orlanth "throttling" the Dragon' standing-stones in "Enclosure".
But as I don't believe the eradication and rediscovery of the name "Yelmalio" is remotely necessary, this all rather passes me by. Treat Hilliam Wants West as a partially-informed, Dragon-Pass-based source, and you can do whatever you want with the *other* Sun Dome Temples -- in the Provinces and Prax both.
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Nick
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