I strongly disagree with this. I imagine there are quite a few devotees of the providing sides of Orlanth and Ernalda (as well as Barntar, Odayla and, perhaps, Issaries). There's no real support question for these people -- they will produce more food for the clan than a similar initiate. They may fill special roles in rituals (the First Plowing, the Great Hunt, Catch the Big Fish Day, Speaking to the Wild Herbs, and so on), but mostly they are just really close to their god and, in mose cases, serve as an exemplary member of their "profession." If the clan provides support in the sense of shelter for the Hunter or defense for the Healer, the devotees more than repay this through the extra food they provide, the lives they save, and the passing of at least some of their skills to the next generation of "joe and jane average Heortling" non-specialists. Priests, other extreme magical specialists, some thanes, and many nobles may require anywhere from some to full support depending on whether they are initiates or devotees, what they do for the clan, and what god they serve.
Which brings me to another point -- we are discussing this as if what determines the number of devotees is the economic needs of the tribe. The gods call worshippers; the worshippers are not assigned by the needs of the clan. There are connections, of course -- when a clan raises a lot of sheep, they give a great deal of worship to Voriof; this draws the attention of Heler to the clan. As a result, Heler chooses some young people for his own. Most of them grow up to follow Voriof, but one or two might be called to Uroth or another sub-cult. The clan thereby gives more worship to Heler, and the cycle is continued, especially because their sheep grow fat and sassy and become even more important to the economy of the clan. If there was conflict between the followers of Entra and Nevala over whether pigs or sheep would be favored by the clan, both groups would, I think, perform rituals to attract the godesses' eyes, both to improve the appropriate herd but also to encourage the goddess to chose more people.
I think devotion works the same way. People are initiates and devotees partly because of personal feeling, but also because the god calls them more or less strongly. I suspect that devotees are fairly easy to spot from an early age, long before they are old enough to initiate. A child born with grey eyes may be called to Humakt, a boy destined to serve Uroth might be born with a full head of shaggy hair, etc. As they grow, this becomes more noticible -- kids who play outside in the rain all day are likely to become followers of Orlanth Thunderous, little tomboys grow up to be Vingans, especially if they happen to have red hair, and so on. I realize the example in TR 71-73 shows a much more "profession-oriented" model of Heortling life, but I think this is misleading (the examples, after all, exist to show how it would work for player characters who are notoriously unusual). I doubt all that many Heortlings (certainly Heortling men) change their sub-cult at all during their lives, and fewer still change it more than once (or change gods). Devotees would do this even less often (even those who have not learned the secret) -- you do not form a close personal identification with a god and then casually change your mind.
So the number of devotees in a clan has a great deal to do with what the gods want as well as what the clan needs. Of course, we hope that there is a fair amount of overlap -- Orlanth is just and generous after all.
Peter Larsen
--__--__--
Powered by hypermail