Fertility

From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_mail.utexas.edu>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 18:37:39 -0500


Peter Metcalfe says:

>But I didn't say fertility connection, I said fertility _powers_.
>I'm having difficulty understanding why you think a mere genealogical
>connection is an indication of having fertility powers. Humakt
>can be defined as having fertility powers because he has a
>genealogical connection to Arkat.

        Well, I kind of wonder about that whole "Son of Humakt" thing, but the difference is that Shargash and Thed and Heler and Orlanth and Ernalda etc are all parents of races or nations, not just one guy. Being a founder has special connotations -- for the Orlanthi, what it means to be a man, including what it means to be a fertile man, is defined by Orlanth. Male fertility, for the Heortlings, derives from Orlanth, 'cause he's daddy. Other gods may also carry connotations for male fertility for the Orlanthi, and it's a good thing or they would have all died out in Tarsh, but Orlanth is *ahem* the Big Man.

> >I don't think Orlanth is a fertility god
>
>If you don't think Orlanth is one then why do you feel that
>Shargash is a fertility god, based on his connection with
>the people of Alkoth?

        I don't thing Orlanth is a fertility god in the sense that fertility is his primary association. Barntar and Heler, to name two, have more obvious fertility associations, partly because they have less ground to cover. Orlanth does a lot of things; one of them is fertility. Fertility is a lot more of what Ernalda does, but she is not just fertility, either. Fertility is a lower proportion of what Shargash does, but it is still part of him. If Shargash was just a killing god, his people, who take him as their model for male behavior, could only kill.

> >It seems that every Tom, Dick, and Harry had the Death rune, for example,
>>just because they were combat gods. Now, it looks like we have a finer
>>distinction between gods who Fight (Orlanth, Vinga, Heler, etc.) and those
>>who Bring Death (Humakt and Babeester Gor).
>
>I really don't see the distinction that you make. Orlanth never
>had the death rune (his connection with violence is through the
>Storm rune).

        Orlanth carried Death, briefly, didn't he? My point is that in the RQ style, nearly every PC cult had Death as one of its runes. Most of the villainous cults seemed to have it, too. Why? Because fighting things is what PCs do (at least most RQ-era PCs I've ever met). Fighting=killing=death. And there weren't a lot of choices of runes, anyway. Now that whole model is downplayed -- you can have fighting gods, war gods, berserk gods, and death gods and they will all be different.

> >Similarly, a lot of gods have associations with runes that they
>>don't "hold" -- that "minor association with Fertility" bit about
>>Thed (Lords of Terror, p.48) is an example of this.
>
>Deities do hold secondary runes.

        Yeah, but it's a less Godlearnerish world now -- there's more attention to the nature of the deity and less attention to where that deity fits in some abstracted classification system created by a bunch of discredited Westerners.

Peter Larsen
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