>me>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,
Regardless, it is truth.
>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.
Shargash is not a parent of a race or nation, Alkor is. Shargash does father Alkor who fathers Alkoth but so then Humakt fathers Arkat who fathers the Dark Empire, a lineage of Autarchs and six mistress race trolls.
If you protest that Arkat fathering the Dark Empire is allegorical then the same can be said for Shargash and the people of Alkoth.
> >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.
But since Shargash does not have fertility as a primary association, he is not a fertility deity.
>If Shargash was just a killing god, his people, who take him as
>their model for male behavior, could only kill.
The people of Alkoth do not take Shargash as their model for "male behaviour" any more than the rest of Dara Happa takes their great god Yelm as their model. How the Orlanthi derive role models from their divinities is applicable only to them. Other cultures follow different practices.
Secondly the men of Alkoth do not all worship Shargash as a male role model. He is far too violent for that. Only a portion of the Alkothi army will follow Shargash the destroyer (how large a portion depends on what their bowmen and spearmen worship). While the Green Path (Shargash the Purifier) is less violent, this aspect is not one for male role models.
> >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?
But he does not have the Death Rune.
>My point is that in the RQ style, nearly every PC cult had Death
>as one of its runes.
Yelmalio? Orlanth? Aldrya? Lodril? Mostal? Pamalt? Trickster? Kyger Litor?
>Most of the villainous cults seemed to have it, too.
Thed? Bagog? Pocharngo? Primal Chaos? Krjalk?
>Why? Because fighting things is what PCs do (at least most RQ-era
>PCs I've ever met). Fighting=killing=death.
This equation is refuted by the example of Orlanth and others whom I've listed. (For reasons of fairness, I've omitted those deities whose worshippers are normally wimps and sissies in combat). Hence fighting does not equal death. One did not to join a death rune cult to be a good fighter (although it helped).
>Now that whole model is downplayed -- you can have fighting
>gods, war gods, berserk gods, and death gods and they will
>all be different.
I don't see much difference between then and now.
Fighting God: Orlanth Adventurous.
War God: Yelmalio
Berserk God: Storm Bull, Zorak Zoran.
Death God: Humakt.
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