I think this entire Uleria thread is about a misconception.
Uleria evidently is not a native Heortling cult. The power of Life she embodies is worshipped by the Heortlings, through the Ernalda cult. Any invocation of "Life" or "Fertility" is an invocation of what remains of that Gloranthan Court deity.
The Uleria cult we have encountered in Apple Lane, Alone (Griselda's grandaunt) and Pavis most probably has mainly non-Heortling members. Any Heortling boy or girl with the intent to worship Uleria likely will be kicked out of the clan and end up in the cities or with influential sponsors.
Which brings me to Gringlestead, better known as Apple Lane. It has been described (correctly, too) as a waystation on the way to adventure. IMO this is simply because Gringle is an eccentric who has surrounded himself with an unusual ring of companions and followers and who serve his purposes and preoccupations. Two Ulerians probably indicate that he (a bachelor IIRC) likes diversity; an expert ironsmith is almost as good as a duck laying golden eggs, and those two veteran Humakti probably are followers from former expeditions as well.
The number crunching Greg provided (c. 900 members of each speciality cult) refers to the native, tribal Sartarite Heortlings. Minority populations like durulz or Telmori aren't included in this calculation, nor are Lunar settlers of Wulfsland, Lunar slaves on the manor in Colymar lands, garrisons of Lunar occupation forces or mercenary forces like the Army of Tomorrow, camp followers to either, etc. etc.
I suppose a volume "Strangers in Sartar" could easily fill a book the size of Thunder Rebels and provide interesting characters, scenario hooks etc. Uleria definitely would have a place here.
To introduce Uleria as widespread cult among the clans is about as likely as getting all European Union farmers to operate according to the "bio"-label... Wherever they appear, I suppose they will be foreigner followers of a thane or chief. And cause bad blood with the guardians of matrimony. In that regard, they are hardly better than Eurmal, and probably worse than Niskis and Yinkin.
Stephen Tempest:
>Incidentally: Heortlings are not allowed to marry members of their
>own clan, correct?
This is something I've been discussing with Alex Ferguson these days.
Several types of Heortling marriages are the subject of clan economy - a bride-price and/or dowry is exchanged, children's clan affiliations are regulated, etc. (Those marriages which aren't are a subject of clan economy because they tie up otherwise available resources...)
In the (for now hypothetical) marriage within a clan, giver and receiver of dowry/bride price would be the clan. Maybe a few cows would be redistributed among various steads or households, but that's about it.
The genealogical and biological aspects of such a (still hypothetical) marriage would be problematic if all 85% of the clan marriages were of this kind. Inbreeding will be inevitable within a few generations.
(To illustrate this problem: in the late Middle Ages European royalty could not marry without a dispens of the church because of too close relationships, even when some Spanish prince married a Norwegian princess... That's several thousand miles distance in a society with worse roads than Sartar under Lunar occupation.)
On the other hand, if all 85% of the clan members marry exogamously, inbreeding will be a distant danger if the biological bloodlines are carefully divined for the last 15%.
Since the children of an intra-clan marriage belong to the clan no matter what, there is no disadvantage on the population development. Genealogically, such marriages will help make the common ancestors more real in terms of bloodline.
BTW:
When an Orlanthi wife dies, will she join the ancestors of her husband's
clan, or those of her birth clan?
What about widows remaining with their children?
Widows returning to their birth clan?
(treat any under-husbands analogously)
Now, lets switch from the hypothetical to a historical case: When Colymar's Black Spear clan entered Dragon Pass, there were no other humans around. I honestly doubt that all of the unmarried young folk in that clan were condemned to celibacy, and assume that these Heortlings will have kept records of bloodlines (that's what crones and matchmakers do...). Of course, being a newly constituted clan with folk from many origins, they didn't have to fear inbreeding from interbreeding for a while. When the Orendanae ordered the split into five clans, probably the spectre of inbreeding began to raise its ugly head (even though by this time other clans had become available as marriage candidates in theory, although neither Runegate Triarchy nor Tree Triaty in praxis).
Other solo immigrant clans will have operated on a similar premise, I suppose (Varmandi, Karandoli, Jenstali, Hiordings, to remain with the Colymar example), whereas triaties anticipated this problem and set up strict rules, but at the same time provided lots of suitable contact. (I wonder, though, what happens when one of a triaty's clan produces a serious surplus of prospective husbands or wives - I guess that's what started or at least motivated the "fish marriage" of one of the Runegate clans.)
Thus having shown that intra-clan marriage needn't have been an absolute taboo for most clans, it's time to think about when intra-clan marriages can be licensed. "Biological incest" (outside of ritual practices) is to be avoided. After 250 years of inhabiting Dragon Pass, this may well limit the number of allowable marriages within a clan to well below 1 out of 7. Occasional fresh blood by adoption may alleviate the situation, though. One more hurrah for the crones and matchmakers.
A clan with the occasional intra-clan marriage (or at least procreation) will have a truer claim to "we all are kin" than a strictly exogamous clan. Either way can be beneficial wrt the magics involved.
IMG there will be a Lunar All of Sartarite Heortling clans which are strictly (Yelmic sense) exogamous.
>Does the same prohibition apply to non-marital sex?
Probably not, assuming you mean pre-marital sex rather than extra-marital sex. There will be a strong prohibition against dallying with close family (probably up to second cousins) for just-for-fun relations without any intention (and if the Ernalda initiation is worth its name, little danger) of procreation.
>If it does, then having a casual affair with anybody from the
>same village as you will count as incest. The only way for young
>Orlanthi to indulge in sexual experimentation will be to sneak off to
>another clan's tula - 20 miles away.
There's always guests, inter-clan-contests, market days, and herding on the border of your tula (oops, I guess I have to clarify: so that you are close to young people of other clans).
I suppose that relations with fosters from other clans will be allowed too, once they have come of age.
>In such a situation, Uleria
>cultists might have a major social role to play, especially if as
>worshippers of a "demon" they are treated as beyond the laws of kin,
>like Tricksters, and sleeping with one doesn't count as incest...
Sleeping with a trickster definitely counts as adultery, and by extrapolation where there is a total (Yelmic All) taboo as incest as well. Bloodline restrictions will forbid such activities, too (though likely not prevent them from happening). Where Trickster gets no license, why should Uleria?
Ulerians as clan cohabitants (but non-members) might alleviate the situation, but in the countryside a clan-operated Uleria temple (for clan use; as a service point along the royal road I cannot say) will be about as socially acceptable as a Eurmal temple.
Non-member clan cohabitants of any other cult will alleviate the situation as well, though possibly not as much. A wife's younger sister on the stead, a thane's followers, an exile guesting for a year - all of these provide almost as much potential for an outlet as does the presence of a Ulerian.
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #334
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