> Somewhere (maybe not TR) I remember reading that the temple of
warrior
> gods like Helemakt was the worshipper's warband, which makes
eminent
> good sense. The worshippers "priests" in such a "temple" would
> probably just be the warband leaders who worship in the same
subcult.
TR, pg. 219. "Every clan has a temple to Orlanth Adventurous in the bodies of its fyrdmen and weaponsthanes."
TR, pg. 239, "Even small clans have at least one god-talker of Orlanth Thunderous. Large clans have full priests with their retinues of one or two priest or god-talker followers. The Wind Temple (in the Storm Hills) is an unusual cult center with its own (more complex) organization."
> There might be other cults (e.g. Eurmal) that don't have any fixed
> "temples" in the sense of places of worship, just an organization,
or
> maybe not even that.
Yep. The word "temple" appears to have a variety of meanings to Heortlings - community of worshippers, sacred place, etc. Probably community of worshippers is most common.
> This makes sense -- if the temple is a site, then the temple
> institution might just be the social group that has the legal
right to
> worship in that site. Several clans or tribes might have rights to
a
> given site. Presumably there's some form of committee of
worshippers
> or the like to manage access to a site in this case. The
> representatives to the committee of an inter-tribal site would
> probably be priests from various tribes.
Yes - this is pretty much my view (although the "committee of worshippers" are probably the priests of the place - either appointed or self-proclaimed). I'm sure there are lots of legal squabbles about access to sacred places.
Jeff
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