Re: The Glorantha Digest V7 #494

From: darvall <madamx_at_ns2.mikka.net.au>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 23:56:38 +1100


>

D>> >>I wrote this stuff in order to give my hunter's a more wilderness centred
>> >>approach to their lives.
>

JL>Good. But the hunter, like a shaman, is part of two worlds.
>
>The few devotees of the LotW enter into the wilderness and forsake
>the society of men, and their own humanity. Completely.
>
>They become Beasts.
>

<snip>
>

JH >> >I stumbled a little over the proper name 'Tara' for the Lady of the Wild,

>

JL >But that *isn't* her only name.
>
>She only even *has* a name in non-Odaylan / non-LotW myths, anyway.
>(cottars attempting to civilise her) (and failing)
>
>She doesn't have a singular representation, or a single name, even
>among the Heortlings. From a strictly theistic POV, she isn't a
>goddess,
>but a certain kind of mythic figure that is centered around a
>loosely remembered quasi-Hsunchen All-/Animal- Mother.
>
>The God Learners never *quite* managed to fit the LotW
>into their neat little schemes. She can't be tied down.
>
>Some of the Heortlings call her Kero Fin, if you don't like 'Tara'.
>

Good point

<snip>

JH >> > cult membership is part active worship and part surrender to a reality
>> >too big to be ordered or controlled. And part cold opportunism.
>>

JL.
>
>Yes.<snip>I believe that most of the LotW's devotees
>will be intelligent wild beasts. Probably the carniverous ones.

Either that or the folk of beast valley. Some of my inspiration comes from a mention somewhere of the bloody rites held in Tara's honour by the various beast folk. Pete Tracey was working something up on Satyrs & their forms of worship. That get anywhere ?

JL ><snip> Is Orlanth ever a Hunter god in your opinion ?

In as much as he is also Farmer, Lawspeaker, Warrior etc.
>
>> >>Any meeting with Tara is a mystical
>> >>event, although Taran mystics have low life expectancies.
>
>I don't think that they are Mystics keyword-wise.

Dunno. I suspect that animism is more their style but, by the time they're Tarans not Odaylans, they're so off beat that their worship appears to be mysticism. My take, particularly in light of John's post, is that any Taran humans are so far on the outer that they can no longer be defined as human. Odayla's role is to act as a buffer between his mum & his worshippers lest the latter "run wood".
>
>But : am I wrong ? I could definitely see a case for them having
>physical
>powers similar to those of physical mysticism. But maybe not. Hmmmm
>- -..

Hold that thought.

>
>If, evil one, you have come
>from a forest demon's lair
> from hideouts of pine
> from lodges of fir
>that is where I banish you-
>to the forest demon's lair
> the lodges of fir
> the hideouts of pine
> that you may stay there
>

Taking your sig as an Odaylan banishing spell.

Darvall
madamx_at_mikka.net.au
>From quiet homes & first beginnings

Out to the undicovered ends
Theres nothing worth the wear of winning But laughter & the love of friends.
Hilare Belloc


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