It is sometime now since I raised the peculiarity of the worship of Uleria openly espoused in Apple Lane, Sartar, and in Pavis. This is greatly at variance to much traditional Sartarite belief, which tends to depict the Goddess Uleria as a broken member of the Cosmic Court, now little more than a demon of lust and perversity. Sacred Prostitution is not generally a feature of Orlanthi worship, and resistance to the Cult of Hon-eel the Artess and other of our traditions imply that the strong emphasis on family, bloodline and the practice of both patriarchal and matrilineal descent, varying by clan and weightof trasdition way heravily against such innovation in worship.
I briefly, and at considerbale risk to my person surveyede the known sites called Apple Lane in Sartar; both the famous one, home ot one time Sartar ring member and High Priest of Issaries Gringle Goodsell, and several other small hamlets bearing the same name scattered across the kingdom, and indeed in Heortland. My travels did not confirm if this pattern continues in to Esrolia: I suspect Esrolia may have avery different set of attitudes to Uleria.
Other scholars have already noted that hamlets named Apple Lane are often associated with wealth, and specifically are places rich in coinage. The Temple to Uleria in Apple Lane of great reute is of course mainly known for its provision of intimacy for coin, differing greatly from the Pavic Temple recently described by Iain Tomassen in his work on taht institution, which stresses the essential mystical and monistic beliefs of the cult there.
I travelled to Pavis myself to study the Temple, and during my visit had occasion to visit one of the villas in Rich Hill, just outside the wallsof the old city. It was as I walked through this prosperous neighbourhood, and enetered a road home to several okarnos and Eyteries caravan masters whose wealth is renowned throughout the region that I suddenly saw that the opulence and luxury here, and the love of coin, was reflected in the street name - 'Apple Lane'. Glance at any map of Pavis, and there it is staring at you. I had seen it one hundred times, but never before had I noted it, or realised the significance. Is it coincidence that four of the wealthiest citizens of Pavis live on this narrow lane? I think not.
I performed many divinations, and spent long hours studying in the Libraries of the Temples. The Annexe at Pavis held much which was of use to me; and finally I found what I was seeking out. The significance lies, of course, in the name itself.
We all have a sympathy for apples, especially red apples. They remind us of the Moon, and the apple i a symbol to us Lunars of Wealth, Prosperit and Happiness. It is similarly to Sartarites a symbol of wealth and prosperity, yet is often in Sartarite provers tainted; that is they speak of a 'rotten apple', a 'bad apple', or 'forbidden fruit' - referrring to the Apple. There are many tales in which apples provoked Discord, or allowed kinstrife to enter in to the home through the squabbles of women. Red Apples are to Sartarites intimately connected with sex, and the female genitalia, for reasons I am not entirely clear upon. Green Apples are associated with wealth, fo rreason much easier to understand.
The apple as we all know prefers a temperate climate. Sartar is slightly too wet and windy and the altitudes are a little high to naturally favour apples, and more importantly the Apple is associated with the Sky and Fire, not with Air or Earth. It is not native to Sartar, but was probably introduced from Peloria via Tarsh, though it has probably always grown within the more temperate climate of Tarsh.
So I know started to look in earnest for how the apple was introduced, and found very quickly in old folk ballads and a still extant very minor heroine cult the origin story. After the Dragon Kill, as the centuries passed, apples were still unknown in what is today Sartar. We seen no depiction of them in th period of Arim, yet a few generations after the resettlement of the Pass, apples crop up regularly in Orlanthi stories,poetry, saga and artwork Originally they are symbols of love and affection, and seem to have a high monetary or barter wealth - in short they are expensive forign trade items.
Yert within decades they become more common, and here is why. Orlanthi society is primarily barter based as we know, sustenance and agrarian. Food surpluses are traded to provide other needed supplies, and a wealthy clan prosper, but certainly in early Heortyling society coinage was little used - torcs were preferred, and needed wealth chopped off, as is still done today. .In the early period of the resettlement, times were hard, and most steads and clans were battling to surviv. There was precious little surplus of anything, and what there was was traded very carefully.
Yet as the decades passed, prosperity came to many clans. Surplses aroses, and the Issaries trades became more common. Taxes came to be paid imore in coinage, and a monetary economy developed alongside the barter one. At this time, Dora Openarms, a young wonam ciommitted the ways of Issaries, came to the Pass, and she brought withher appleseed. She sold apple-seed for money: and in return she taught the tale of Issaries First Trades, and showed how from those seeds honest profit could be made. She was very beautiful, and many men desired her. She was very open with her affections - but she charged for those too! She introduced apples as a cash crop - crops not grow just for ones own clans needs, but to yield a large harvest which could be traded and hence raise cash for the clan, which could be traded for other thinsg one had not grown while specialising in apples.
The tale she taught, involving Issaries and the Apple Seeds, is too well known to need repeating here (look under Issaries in Storm Tribe - I was working through this and suddenly recalled the account! - cj ). Dora travelled throughout Sartar, sprading apple seeds, establising orchards and the cash economy and eventually reached the very place that Issaries first trade took place, today called the Village of Apple Lane in Sartar. There she built a little shop, which today si owned by Gringle Goodsell. Many of the places where Dora Openarms spread her seeds areknow little hmlets called Apple Lane, usually built on main road where thwo or three tulas meet, and count as tribal not clan territory, though sometimes within a Clans tulam, yet not of it.
Sartarites welcome the prosperity that coin reflects; but they know trade has its downside, in the opening up to dangerous forign ways. Therefore Apple Lanes are places associated with wealth, and where foreign ways and life outside the clan may be experienced. A trip to Apple Lane is often a first introduction to adulthood, and a sort of additionakl initiation for young men and women who first learn of the pleasures offered by strange ways, and the ways of strangers, and the value of hard cash, yet still are close to home and the security of the the tula. Coin and bought affections - two truths all young adults come to undertand in lifes hardest lessons...
What is allowed in Apple Lane may not be allowed at home.
This is not the casein Pavis: I wionder how the meaning there wa slost? I syuspec that when the street was named, all that was left was the association with wealth. Yet not entirely - I was talking to one of the few Priestesses of Dora Openarms, a herocult of Sartar, and she hinted there was an Apple Lane Heroquest, which governed the very wealth of the lands. is this true? I can not say, but I note that on our military maps of Dragon Pass, Apple Lane has always been maked. Does the moonson know?
(So writes the Sage. It's the best I can do at explaining this off the top of my head... Any comments?)
cj x
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