Simon Hibbs :
> Another oddity is that Nandan is supposedly the principle manifestation
> of homosexuality in heortling culture, yet the desire by men to bear
> children is very rare among homosexuals.
Robin's already addressed your first point ; and while the desire to bear children is certainly rare among gay men, the desire to have children and raise a family is pretty common.
In RW infertile people are prepared to go to great lengths to produce their 'own' children. If gay men had a magical method ... well ; a desire to bear children would appear to make sense ...
Meirion Hopkins :
> The Nandan cult's origin in the Great Darkness was obviously born out
> of a need to make babies with no other option available.
> However, in historic times there is likely to be no need for this
> manifestation of his powers within a clan.
Perhaps not within a whole clan, or at least not very often.
But in a bloodline ? I can see that happening ...
> A clan with problems bad enough to need follow that path
> are unlikely to survive
Which is the whole mythic justification for the path ...
> and other options are available now which weren't then.
They probably were.
> I can't see that Nandan is the principle manifestation of homosexuality
> in Heortling culture.
But he is probably the most _overt_ manifestation of male homosexuality.
OTOH it is true that homosexuality is more readily associated with Heler ... Either Nandan has a very small cult, or his worship is more clandestine than not.
> IMO, most homosexual Heortlings are going to be members of normal cults
> applicable to their daily lives, rather than worshipping a specialised
> 'gay deity'.
But to be fair, there probably are quite a few specialised 'sex cults' in Glorantha, including homosexual ones.
And what IS a 'normal' cult ? Homosexuality is in itself a cultic practice anthropoword-wise, and so is every other ritualised social activity. So what ? So : it is unsurprising that such cults as Nandan should exist, as pathways to channel the magical energies that are released by sex into some sort of desirable sex magic.
Actually, weird Gloranthan sex goes waaaaay back to the Androgeus counter in WB&RM.
And let's not even *mention* the Lunars ...
Is Nandan a sub-cult or Aspect of Uleria BTW ?
> In historic times, for the cult to survive, it will have attract followers
That's probably not much of a problem, you know ...
> (unless Nandan's original clan survives somewhere and keeps his rites going).
Will this be one of the three "typical" heortling clans in TR & ST ? ;-)
Julian Lord
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