Great discussion here! Thank you Allison and Donald.
Just a quick comment to Stephen:
:It makes an interesting progression. Girls who accept sleep early,
:putting all their trust in others, are destined to be "good wives and
:mothers." Those who hang on longer, preparing and training the men,
:will be leaders and heroes (but might have trouble finding a partner
:who can accept them).
I think this shows a (false) modern USA bias. The Heortling men don't want a meek woman that cooks and cleans and leaves other things to men. The sexes are separate but equal (teach Orlanth and Ernalda) and the women are the brains of the outfit. The men know that women (and Ernalda) is better at clear headed thinking and planning. Also remember that Ernalda is as great a Goddess as Orlanth is God.
What you want in a wife is a smart, skilled and powerful woman.
***
But now to the topic.
The reason why this stuff is important to me is because I've got a few very detailed PC:s in my game, run by very dedicated gamers. One is quite literally a young daughter of Yinkin. Yina Theyasdottir is the daughter of a god and a powerful heroquester Theya Dawnsfire. Her mother wooed Yinkin in Godtime and gave birth to a litter of four. Yina has a sister and two brothers, all of whom can take both cat and human form.
Theya herself was killed defending her children when a rival clan tried to steal some of them soon after birth. The children (some mostly in cat form, some more human) grew quickly in magic power, and an initiation ceremony had to be arranged at a very early age (since children aren't supposed to know magic, and the children needed to learn to control their powers).
I ran an initiation quest for the player in question (my lady Suvi, the person behind this art http://www.glorantha.com/new/yinkin.jpg ), but I didn't really know how to do the initiation. I still wouldn't know how to do it. Yina being a girl.
The character is very much an adventurous Tomboy, so what I ran was a very free Godtime quest modelled on "How Vinga Joined the Thunderbrothers" in which she joined Orlanth's band of warriors, followed the Unholy Trio to the edges of the universe (losing them eventually, luckily) and faced chaos in a personal battle in the spirit of I fought, We Won.
It could be worse, but there was no mention of Heort or the Second Son (who either is or isn't Heort, I'm still confused about that).
Suvi will let me retcon the quest, but I'm still not quite sure how this should have gone. The clan in question is the Winter Rock clan, and offshoot of the Shadowcat clan of Harmast Barefoot, and they live high in the northern foothills of the mountainrange of Heortland (the name escapes me).
***
The other PC is a young Issaries Goldentongue merchant from Esrolia. I'm even more confused there. Should he or should he not have met Heort and received the Star Heart?
-Adept
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 203
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