>To some extent, I would agree, however, I'm also prone to invoking vile
>monsters like the Godlearners or even the Lunars in explaining overly
>"extensive" cults. My way of looking at it was that there were about a
>gazillion different storm-related deities in the barbaric lands the
>Jrusteli came across. As part of their program to dominate the world via
>the Monomyth, they decided to invent or use a deity named "Orlanth" who
>would fold all these into a single cult. In addition, after the
>Godlearners got theirs, natural syncretism and assimilation occured, as you
>described.
Nope. The extensivity of Orlanth has nothing, and I repeat, nothing to do with the Jrusteli. Three of Orlanth's four big aspects - king, storm god, and warrior - were well established and recognized by the Vingkotlings. That's during the Storm Age (or Lesser Darkness for you Jrusteli or Dara Happans). Orlanth's farmer aspect was also probably well-established during the Storm Age. Certainly Barntar was - and by some accounts that is the same thing as Orlanth.
It was the Orlanthi themselves that traveled through the lands of Central Glorantha encountering various people and teaching them of Orlanth. During the Dawn, the "Lightbringer Missionaries" proved that the Ram god of the Talastari is Orlanth. They proved to the Syllans that the great Sky Bear father of Odalya the Hunter is none other than Orlanth the Grizzly. They proved to the Ralians that Orlanth is the brother of Humath. And so on.
Don't mistake this for some kind of semantic exercise - in many cases, the Theyalan missionaries proved these things by uttering the sacred words of these peoples. The Talastari were amazed that the Orlanthi missionaries knew parts of a sacred poem even though they had never encountered them before. The missionaries then taught these Dawn Age folk how to sacrifice to Orlanth and his tribe and how to see Elmal's light.
It is important to remember that this happened centuries before Arkat - let alone the Jrusteli. Blame the God Learners for many things, but not Orlanth.
Jeff
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