Jane:
> I think you're on the right track there, but have
the wrong Earth goddess? It's the dark side who take
blood, isn't it? And if all these women weren't
sacrificing it themselves, we'd have to go back to the
(good?) old days of ploughing the King into the fields
every seven years or so.
Right! (smacking forehead) So what Gloranthan women are doing is sacrificing their blood to the dark goddesses as their price to be fertile. Buying them off on the installment plan, so to speak. Menopause is both the loss of fertility, and the lack of needing to keep up the payments.
Logical corollaries? Can a girl choose the time for onset of menstruation by choosing when to undergo her initiation to Ernalda, or do the dark goddesses just enforce their repayment schedule willy-nilly?
Are some girls marked for a dark goddess because their menses never come? I.e., does a very late or absent menstruation mean that a dark goddess requires this girl's service to be personal and lifelong, instead of deferred by blood?
Alison
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