>I would forget about the worshippers numbers and go with
>the King of Dragon Pass method of costs in cows and the like
>to support the srhine/temple/whatever.
>
>Remember to contact a god does not require x number of
>initiates, it requires a god-talker and y number of cows.
Frankly, this makes a lot of sense to me -- if a shrine requires a hundred initiates (as per "Behind Lanbril's Mask," _Theives' Arm_, p. 3 -- thanks Graham Robinson), there won't be many, if any, shrines in Sartar -- if the average tribe has some 8,000-9,000 members, with about 50% initiated adults, there will be only 40-45 worshippers of any of the "big specialty gods" in a given tribe.* Even if two tribes cooperated (not all that likely), they would not be able to maintain a shrine between them. This seems wrong.
I doubt that Sartar is as thick with shrines as King of Dragon Pass suggests (obviously, it has a different intent as a game than HW), but every clan should be able to have a couple of shrines to favored gods, if only for local color. Temples to gods other than Orlanth and Ernalda should remain much less common, maybe only one or two per tribe, if that.
Relying less on initiate numbers also saves us from the problem of Elmali clans being unable to support an Orlanth temple (if even 1/3 of the adult men are Elmali, there may not be enough Orlanthi to keep a temple going.
So this is a really good idea -- shrines and temples depend on the willingness of a clan/tribe to shell out the cows to build the thing (or decorate and mark off an outside area), support godar and priests, etc. Shrines are probably pretty cheap -- you need a godi, a small physical outlay for the structure (if any), and the necessary sacrifices. Even a good-sized stead could manage this, especially if the god offered some economic incentive (Uldra or Voriof come to mind), although I hasten to suggest that most Heortlings would rverse the cause and effect -- "Heler has always blessed our flocks and made them the strongest and most numerous in the clan; of course we give him praise and honor." Temples, on the other hand, require a lot more -- a priest, some godar, at least a few additional initiates/devotees, the temple itself, buildings for the priest and company, and sacrifices, sacrifices, sacrifices. With temples for Orlanth and Ernalda already a given, I doubt most clans could manage more than one more temple, and those are probably tribe-wide institutions, with complicated agreements governing what each clan pays and how they get to access the holy ground.
Thanks, that helps a lot. (And thanks to everyone else who responded.)
Peter Larsen
*I doubt the "big specialty gods" divide their 1% of worshippers evenly, however -- I suspect there are proportionately more Elmali and Helerings and less Eurmali and Uroxi in the average clan, so it should be easier to find an Elmal shrine than *shudder* a Eurmali one.
Powered by hypermail