My thanks to those who commented on my BG write up.
From Loren Miller:
> Lay Membership
> All women are considered to lay members of Babeester Gor
> from their
> birth.
>IMG, Babeester Gor is not a universal cult. She only thrives in societies
>where vast numbers of women have been abused and mistreated, including the
>horror-show that is the Kingdom of War.
The idea I was shooting for here was that the cult considers all women to be lay members in that all women are deserving of the cult's protection. Most women probably don't see themselves as members of the cult, and the cult sees itself under no obligation to protect those who are not at least lay members (ie. men). Most women turn to the cult only when they see themselves as being mistreated or in need of protection from men.
From Peter Metcalfe:
>Babeester was raised by Voria and taught the gentle arts of the
>household.
>Babeester is not the sort of goddess that was trained in the
>arts of the household and Voria does not teach those arts -
>she is innocent spring. What's wrong with the savage imagery
>of her leaping up fully armed from her mother's corpse and
>smiting everybody in sight?
My approach is that BG renounced the traditional feminine things when she renounced fertility. The breaking of the distaff is a symbol of that. In order to renounce them, it seemed appropriate that she learn them at some point, and Voria seemed the best person for her to receive them from. Since Voria is the goddess of young girls, it's logical that her cult trains young girls in the skills they will use as women, namely sewing, etc. Where else do young Orlanthi girls learn these skills if not from the main cult devoted to them.
I also wanted to contrast her to Voria as much as possible. Where Voria stays home and is peaceful, BG leaves home and is a warrior. This helps maintain the duality that is present in the 6 earth cults between light/dark.
>Temples to Babeester Gor are dominated by the High Priestess, who
>rules as she sees fit so long as she respects the rights of the women who
>serve under her.
>Rights would be a foreign concept. Babeester Gor is interested
>in punishing trangressions against the earth rather than any
>abstract notion of rights for women. Her enemies are those who
>have (even inadvertedly) broken some dread taboo rather than
>those who fail to respect women properly.
Hmmm. What I was thinking here is that her cult is not as tyrannically run as Maran Gor's cult. I'm certainly not aiming at an anachronistic idea like 'womens' rights'.
>Men may only
>initiate if they know all cult skills at %0% and undergo castration and a
>severe beating. hese requirements ensure that virtually no men join the
>cult.
>Given that men do become eunuchs in Esrolia this doesn't seem
>very offputting (and I fail to understand why there should be
>a severe beating). Yet there are no male worshippers in
>Esrolia and it seems the best explanation is that Babeester
>admits none.
I was unaware of this facet of Esrolian culture. Is it documented somewhere that the cult has no male worshippers in Esrolia?
>Initiates of Babeester Gor are considered initiates of Ernalda and
>Maran Gor as well, and they may choose to resume the powers of fertility by
>dedicating themselves to Ernalda as Reflowering Ones.
>This seems rather extravagant given that initiates of both Maran Gor
>and Ernalda are not automatically initiates of Babeester Gor. What
>about Voria, Asrelia or Ty Kora Tek?
IMG, the 6 earth cults have a certain overlap. Initiating into Ernalda is the adulthood rite for girls, so initiates of BG are in most cases already initiates of Ernalda. The reverse is not true, however, since only those women who feel particularly motivated initiate into BG.
For Maran Gor, I admit that I have less justification. Since the 6 cults overlap, the crucial initiation points should correspond to biological changes. One starts out with Voria as a girl, and then initiates into Ernalda at menstration (or more correctly, menstration comes with initiation into Ernalda). Ernaldan priestess, IMG, transit to either Asrelia or Ty Kora Tek when they reach menopause and lose their fertility. The dark earth cults renounce fertility, which ought to involve a cessation of menstration. Since BG doesn't menstrate, I couldn't think of an obvious point where a BG might transit into Maran Gor. On the other hand, there's no obvious point for a Maran Gori to transit to Asrelia or Ty Kora Tek, so this whole model seems to work better for the light earth cults than the dark earth ones.
Andrew E. Larsen
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