That makes a huge amount of sense. And since Vingans give blood in other ways, perhaps that gives them the option of doing without both fertility and the monthly stomach-ache. (Another nice hark-back to my RQ writeup that was intended to give Vingans exactly what they needed, and no more, to let female warriors have the same freedoms as male warriors.)
> 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?
I always liked the idea that Ernaldan initiation *caused* the first menses, but I gather current thinking is that initiation is something that happens after the first menses has been inflicted (no mythic reason given for what causes it).
I'd guess that as an occasional thing, menses could be postponed/skipped by some other sort of blood sacrifice. But it would still have to be your own blood, shed by your own hand.
> 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?
It's an interesting idea. I seem to remember someone once saying (in jest?) that Babeester Gori seem to be in a state of permanent PMT.
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