> A Heortling might ask "what has love to do with marriage?" the same way
> he might ask "what has love to do with cattle-trading?".
The Orlanthi answer is that 'Cattle are better than women'. Mind you, the Ernaldan response is that 'Cattle are smarter than men'.
>IMO there remains a lot to be said about city
> life among Heortlings. I'm afraid the culture book will have to wait a
> long time unless some fan group gets together to write it, but I'd sure
> like to see something for less rural Heortlings and cohabitants.
Agreed. Even a semi-rural area like Garhound County (admittedly immigrant and mixed cult(ure)s) is strikingly different from the tribal ways of its founders.
> Uleria doesn't support any society (beyond intercourse).
Not quite. Uleria's aspects are (at least in the RQ3 writeup) sexuality, *sociality* and fecundity. However, she is also a goddess without major temples, which IMO makes her mainly a folk religion. As I noted in my HW list response to this, a goddess of shrines and charms and shady bowers, of graffiti carved on temple walls and half-remembered love songs. She's Old - Celestial Court Old. For most, she's long ago and far away. Essentialyy though, I agree completely.
> Uleria lacks a niche even in ordinary Heortling city life.
Agreed. Very specialised, acting for small numbers of Lunar officials and
traders. And the Ibex Moon connection.
Plus, there's nothing stopping the Velan matchmakers moving to set up shop
in the city temples of Ernalda. Why should Vela be just a rural deity?
> If you mean "love" as "lust", possibly - the Orlanthi don't seem to have
> a female Trickster deity beyond cross-dressing Eurmali.
Why shouldn't 'lust' be recognised as good, old-fashioned Ernaldan virtue? Heortlings aren't Protestants!
> Prostitution will most likely be an urban phenomenon. It might provide a
> niche for Uleria, but she won't be the only deity found in this niche.
Its mainly a post-invasion/colonisation phenomenon. Why would any Heortling with a choice enter an occupation where they are regularly brutalised, sexually molested, beaten up and abused if they have kin they could return to? Romanticisations aside, urban prostitution has always been an ugly, desperate, and dangerous career. Ulerians, having more in common with Greek haeterae or Sumerian harmitu than genre-stereotype streetwalkers, probably wouldn't be considered prostitutes in this way at all.
Cheers
John
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