Re: The term "Orlanthi"...

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 15:39:27 GMT

GAZZA:
> Now, I _thought_ that the term "Orlanthi" referred to "a racial
> subtype of people who worship the Storm pantheon" (more or less).
> To be specific, you can be an Orlanthi and worship (say) Ernalda,
> or Storm Bull, or Humakt, or (according to Sun County) even
> Yelmalio.

'Das raight...

> However, the terms I'm seeing banded about ("Humakti", "Elmali",
> and so on) suggest to me that, in fact, you're only "Orlanthi" if
> you actually worship Orlanth as your primary deity. Have I missed
> something somewhere?

Nope, you haven't: the term is somewhat 'overloaded'. Indeed. getting moreso all the time, with the multiple distinction between types/degrees of initiation to Orlanth, as well as the the basic cultural term. Mikael R. even went so far as to suggest the term 'orlanthing' to replace the latter sense -- a well-intentioned, albeit Very Silly plan.

When it comes to the cultural sense, one _as a rule_ could instead say 'Theyalan', or 'Heortling' -- but there are subtlities of denotation and connotation of those terms that mean that's not always strictly so.

Cheers,
Alex.

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