> > I think the crux of this really is what you mean by "worship."
> > Undoubtedly magical-specialist (indeed, magical-generalist) herders
> > worship Barntar.
>
>Really? If nothing else, he much have significantly different
>'sub-aspects' for ploughmen and for 'pure(r)' pastoralists.
Plowmen spend their HP on a different aspect than herders do.
> > But this is not the same as being an initiate or
> > devotee of Barntar.
>
>Sure, but if it's entire niche in life is a particular economic
>and magical domain, and you can 'only' be a Worshipper, rather
>than an Initiate of a particular divinity, you may not be entirely
>hosed, but you're a long way from being hose-free.
I'm not completely sure I understand what you wrote, but...
I think most Heortling warriors worship Humakt before they go into battle (indeed, King of Dragon Pass gives you this option on a slightly different scale). But they aren't initiates of Humakt. They could be, of course, but they simply aren't devoted to that level.
Likewise, most Heortling herders (and cultivators) worship Barntar when they need his assistance. But I believe they think of themselves as men first (and thus worship Orlanth), rather than as farmers who are devoted to farming the way Barntar is. Their life doesn't revolve around farming the way a Humakti's life revolves around battle (even if they are in fact a full-time farmer).
In both cases, the worship is more effective if there's a god-talker of the relevant god involved, so there's still a niche.
>It may be that gender-prescriptiveness isn't actually at all
>symmetrical after all, and that there are many (sub)cults that
>proscribe men, but few that proscribe women.
I think this is likely the case. It may reflect the merging of two pantheons (an egalitarian Storm religion and a gender-divided Earth religion).
>I'd put Vinga ("women don't fight") at the very low end of the
>spectrum, and Nandan ("men don't give birth") at the highest end
This doesn't seem like a symmetric spectrum, in that women can fight without resorting to magic. Vinga's opposite would be a hypothetical god of male weavers (we know that the loom is Ernalda's regalia).
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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