Lunarized Orlanthi

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 11:34:10 +1200


David Dunham:

Me>> An Orlanthi would be able to worship the Goddess but one cannot
>> worship Orlanth at the same time. A Tarshite could worship Ernalda
>> or Barntar as well as the Goddess but Orlanth himself is an implaccable
>> foe. Within the Empire, there are plenty of storm deities and sons

>Well, you can't worship Orlanth and the Red Goddess at the same time any
>more than you can worship Orlanth and Yelmalio at the same time. But you
>can worship both gods, within the space of a few hours.

No, you couldn't.

>But, Orlanth is not an implacable foe. Orlanth is a political foe.

And the difference is what?

>There is nothing in the core myths of Orlanth that says "hate the Red
>Goddess."

KoS p96.

And if you meant to say "founding" instead of "core", there is nothing in the founding myths of the Americans that says "hate Hitler". Yet he was an implacable foe all the same.

>The Orlanthi are at heart tolerant folk,
>able to cooperate with Uz (Darkness), Dara Happans (Dawn Age), and even
>their supposed mortal enemies, dragons (Imperial Age).

The question is whether they are able to worship Orlanth and the Goddess at the same time (Yes, I can see David's quibble above but I can't be bothered rephrasing). The answer is that they can't.

>I concede there are storm deities besides Orlanth in the Empire (not even
>counting Invisible Orlanth), but Orlanth is the god of Aggar, which is part
>of the Empire last I checked. And of Tarsh. I'm sorry, but I can't envision
>Rascius being crowned with the rites of Entekos.

Given that the enthronement rites derive from either Heort or Vingkot, I fail to see how any of this can be a coherent objection to my statement that Orlanth worship is being de-emphasized in favour of "storm deities and _sons_ _of_ _Orlanth_" (my emphasis added).

>The Lunar-Orlanth antagonism is a relatively recent thing. It seems a
>reasonable guess that it furthers Tarshite (or perhaps Lunar) political
>ambition.

Castle Blue?

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