> Now _you're_ splitting hairs; their worship is tied up in the
>worship of Orlanth the Great God. Disciples, exclusively devoted to
an
>Aspect of Orlanth, gain access to the magic of all the subcults of
their
>aspect, even those who aren't literally Orlanth. This suggests to me
that
>those sub cults are Orlanth, at least in some ways.
and in a post streight after about War gods :
> I don't think the Kingdom of War counts as a society, which I
think
>involves some kind of sustainability. Besides, Humakt (as I
understand it)
>is no more honored there than any other war god. Maybe Kargan Tor,
the
>primal force of conflict is not gone after all....
So Orlanthi gods associated with Orlanth are realy all just alieases for Orlanth, but different gods of war are completely different guys.
Personaly I'm not a big fan of the new definition of Great Gods. I prefer to say that a great god manifests a more complete and profound expression of it's nature than other gods.
> I don't know. I think there's a sharper division here
(between say
>Elmal and Yelm) for everyone except the most esoteric and
enlightened sun
>worshipper. They are both the sun, but I don't think a priest of
Elmal and
>a priest of Yelm would agree that they were the same sun.
Elmal and Yelmalio are specific aspects of the Sun, not the Sun itself. IIRC Elmal is the cool, pale winter sun and Yelmalio is the bright sky (the sun dome) or some such.
I think Heortling beliefs about ancestry and the importance of the bloodline are imporant here. A man's son is the flesh of his flesh, and blood of his blood. They are seperate individuals, yet also the same substance. So it is with their gods. The storm of Orlanth's sons is Orlanth's storm, just as the air of Orlanth's storm is the air of Umath, his father. Heortlings understand this at an instinctive level in a way that we in our society do not. It permeates their systems of justice and moral law.
> Persumably worship of Doburdun is not "nourishing" to Orlanth
(or
>does it really badly), or it wouldn't be doing the Lunars any
good....I
They are attempting to controll the storm, and weaken the social institution which is the Orlanth cult. They want people to worship storm their way, according to their version of the rules.
>can't imagine that the Lunars would set out to drive Orlanth from the
>Middle Air if it couldn't be done.
It can't, and that's why the empire fails. I don't think they realy understand what they are dealing with.
Simon Hibbs
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