> Has the Lunar Empire managed to arrange affairs such that sheep bred within
> the glowline grow red wool?
Hah! Gloranthan trivia time! <glee>
YES! But...
Plunder, that MOST useful RQ supplement (?) describes "Lunar Sweaters", Wooly jumpers made out of red or black (or both) wool, and act as six point armour on whichever day of the week the sweater is made for. Indeed, some very rich lunar noblemen have a complete set of seven, one for each day of the week.
Unfortunately, the technique for making these sweaters is known to only ONE craftsman in the whole Empire, who lives and works under the protection of the Emperor himself. Only two of these sweaters can be made in any one year, which suggests that the herd of Red Sheep must be quite small. The exact location of this craftsman is a closely guarded secret, which speaks in favour of your anti-Orlanth theories.
> He figured that white sheep were an image of
> the clouds that Orlanth herds in the Sky, hence Orlanthi herd them too,
> following the example of their god.
Sheep are the sacred animal of Heler (animals which are either female, or castrated - -..). Not exactly a cult secret.
> Hence a black sheep is an outcast
> because it is not like the clouds in the sky (unless Orlanth is angry).
> Uroxi probably like black sheep.
A little bit wrong here IMO, but not too badly. The Black sheep, and the uncommon Blue sheep (rain cloud blue, not sky blue) are especially sacred to the Orlanthi (which means that they get sacrificed during Rainmaking), and are sympathetically and spiritually linked with the Rain Spirits of Heler, who live in the Wind, and are enslaved to Orlanth.
Interestingly, sheep were originally mer-creatures, and it is quite possible that herds of them are still kept among the waves, although they would be quite rare creatures. Perhaps off the coast of Umathela, where Heler might be a little stronger?
The rare Blue ram is especially sacred, and never sacrificed, and usually has full INT IMO. The non-intelligent ones are probably all castrated, that is. (That's the Heler cult for you!) This is Heler in his Warrior Aspect. Quite unusual, and quite dangerous.
Black rams are sacrificed for War magic (Battle Storms), and are probably revered in some way by all of the Orlanthi War Gods.
But what about our Red Sheep? Quite blasphemous I agree. If you use them for
Rainmaking, you might get some kind of Red Rain, pouring down fear and loathing
upon your enemies from the Moon. Only possible around the Crater though, I should
think, 'cos the herd is quite small, and probably wouldn't survive too much
culling.
Although a Red Rain Spirit might be carried around by a Lune?
You probably wouldn't like a Red Ram if you met one, and neither would your friendly-neighbourhood Uroxi IMO.
> So, a particularly insidious way for the Lunar Empire to infilitrate itself
> as a fundamental part of Orlanthi culture would be to Heroquest to breed the
> scarlet sheep. If it could achieve this then it would have made the very
> colour of its goddess a part of the basic way of life for all Orlanthi.
Our Lunar sweater person is probably a priest of Heler, come to think of it. Heler would marry the Goddess, any time, and the Emperor too, for good measure!
Actually, the real trick is to breed the Red Rams, which makes any castration (and probably any shearing of the males, too, because of the knife magic) counter-productive. And once you stop castrating them, they become pretty unruly and start producing blue offspring, which the lunars definitely *don't* want! (It's Aroka blue, not Annilla blue)
Not too cryptic or bizarre, I hope?
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