>>Ick. Anyway, where did all those eyes come from, then?
>
>The Goddess enlightened her.
It was a joke, but thanks for the answer anyway.
me:
>>Oh come on; we know the Orlanthi have had periods of deeper
>>philosophical speculation, and that has included the worship of
>>Orlanth.
>
>The only periods that I can think of are: the EWF (draconics
>and the only form of Orlanth they recognized is extinct) and
>the Empire of Light (Loko Moko, 'nuff said). I don't see
>how the philosophical speculations of these periods can be
>said to have improved Orlanthi religion as a whole.
We certainly don't know. My point was that the Orlanthi do engage in fairly high-levvel philosophical speculation from time to time; it is not as alien to their character as you paint it. That the traditionalists beat them down every time just shows that there are much stronger counter-movements among the Orlanthi, and their general lack of centralized government doesn't encourage inter-clan transmission of religious insight. There could be loads of weird philosophical speculation that never gets out of the priest's heads (especially among the Alkoring).
>Secondly you ignore that Orlanth's religion is a religion
>for his _people_ and not abstract-minded philosophers. Unless
>you seriously think that the latest philosophical speculation
>gets transferred down to the Barntari at the plough, I stand
>by my statement that since the Orlanthi do not engage in
>abstract thought about their religion, it is not required
>to make their storm god more potent.
Carlo Ginzburg's "The Cheese and the Worms" shows how philosophical an average joe can get in Medieval Italy (not quite Glorantha, but not all that far off, considering how rural and isolated his part of Italy was). I'm not saying the Orlanthi produce Solar- or Imperial- style philosophers; I'm saying that religeous speculation is not as alien to their culture as you think. And just because people don't think about, develop, or use things doesn't mean they might benefit if they did.
I think we'll have to disagree about subcults and Solar (or any other) insights. We've reached the "does not" "does too" barrier.
Peter Larsen
Powered by hypermail