Female Thunderers

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 98 18:54 MET DST


re: female members of the O. Thunderous cult:

I don't know if the cult exactly prohibits female members.

It seems like an advanced form of Orlanth worship, different from the ordinary male initiation. Ok, it is about throwing tantrums, thunderbolts, acting emotionally - in short, Orlanthi male behaviour - and a blustering beard may be somewhere in the hind heads. (Although the Migration Age Langobards managed their women to look more like Odin by combing their hair into the lower parts of their faces in at least one battle...)

Note how Kallyr behaves in Sartar High Council - emotional, irascible, etc. She is outdoing the male Orlanth representatives in this regard. Effectively, there are only two female participants at the council, Beneva Chan for Earth and the Chalana Arroy healer.

The Orlanthi have a firm rule that "Only women may enter the birthing house". Now, followers of Nandan may enter the birthing hut - they are reckoned to be women for this purpose.

Isn't it possible that women in certain cultic positions may be reckoned to be sufficiently male to enter another subcult of Orlanth?


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