"These cattle people offered proper sacrifice to the
deities of the Paps and steadily forced their way into
Prax history as the "illegitimate" tribe of Prax. The animal
nomads were content when the "cattle bastards" kept
mostly to the regions of No Man's March, The Better Place,
and the approaches to the Storm Hills and the Moonbroth Oasis.
Horse clans did, however, wander far on occasion."
(ROC, Page 14)
To me, this implies two things...
(1) Offering proper sacrifice at the Paps implies knowledge of the
Waha religion and worship in the Waha manner. Therefore,
this implies to me that the Pol Joni must have amongst them
those who can worship and lead rites in the manner of standard
Praxian religion...Waha Khans and Priestesses of Eiritha. Uralda
has no mythology tying her to the plains...in order to support any
herds on the plains, it seems to me that one needs to play by the
rules of Prax (the survival covenant), or not at all. Thus, I stand by
my comment about Waha Khans and Wind Lords both hailing from
the Pol Joni.
(2)While the Better Place may be able to support cattle in perhaps the
traditional Sartar way, places like No Man's March seem to me to be at
best typical chapparal. The approaches to the storm hills would no doubt
be traversed by the Pol Joni for religious reasons, and they'd stick near
Moonbroth since it's a major settlement. Otherwise, it seems that they Pol
Joni don't get quite the pick of grazing as the other Prax tribes do, but
do well enough on their own. And in order to survive on the plains,
IMO Waha worship would be fairly mandatory, although no doubt in a manner
that's quite the bit different from traditional Prax worship. If CoP is to
be believed, Lightbringer and Yelmalio worship is not entirely unknown
amongst other tribes (for example, AFAIK Orlanth and Storm Bull are favored
amongst the Rhinos, Yelmalio worship amongst the high Llama, Yelorna
with the Unicorns (of course!) and Red Goddess worship amongst the Sables.)
Prax religion and culture seems to be pretty flexible when it comes to
worship,
and Lightbringer worship, for example, would most likely be seen more as
"The Great Bull's younger brother, who went to rescue the Sun from the
underworld
while the Great Bull engaged Wakboth."
I think that as long as a young man or woman becomes initiated into
adulthood
according to the Eiritha or Waha rites, and does his or her duty as a good
member fo the clan and tribe, then who cares if he or she worships Little
Brother or the Goldentoungue? Of course, this will vary from tribe to
tribe, as Orlanth Worship in the sables will probably get you stoned, and
Red Goddess worship outside of the sables will get you skinned. But I'd see
most Praxians approaching worshipping other deities the same as joining a
spirit cult, except that gods like the Lightbringers or the 7 Mothers are
simply *really big spirits*.
BTW, did the Pol Joni ride against the Lunars at Moonbroth? I assume they did...
Chris Bell
argrath_at_xsite.net
Seek not in darkness, for fear of corruption. Seek not in daylight, for fear of discovery. Ascension walks the middle path of Shade.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------Chris Bell -- argrath_at_xsite.net
Powered by hypermail