Of course, this is the "Orlanthi all."
> reeks too much of the position
> that "all pyramids must have come from Egypt".
ESPECIALLY since we all know that they all came from Atlantis, don't we? :)
> If people had retained knowledge of sacrifice to the gods
> during the Great Darkness (and some had), then Orlanth
> can be contacted independently without any need for
> help from the Theyalan missionaries.
Except that sacrificing to the gods Orlanth would have been a aste of resources. While dead--in the Underworld--the gods could not respond to their worshippers and send them magic. With such desperate circumstances as existed in the Darkness, few (if any) people retained these sacrifices.
> Furthermore in the west, Worlath (and other gods) were
> worshipped by the pagans of the Seshnegi and the
> Akemi.
I am not sure this is so.
>> There are likely to be some different subcults in Ralios (Vingkot is
>> less important, Siglolf Cloudcrusher, Alakoring, and other heroes
>> are likely to be more important), some local variations (Orlanth's
>> Seat in Ralios is at the Top of the World and not Kerofin, etc) but
>> essentially the writeup presented in Thunder Rebels holds true for
>> the Ralian Orlanthi as well.
>
> I can think of far more deviations than just subcults.
All of these variants fit within my understanding of Orlanth worship.
> 1) High Gods Worship - there may be a cultic practice that worships
> Orlanth as a High God (MoLaD p45).
Even in Heortling lands there may be people who worship thusly. But since no magic is gained from it, it has no practical use, hence is ignored by most everyone.
> 2) Different feats for the same subcults. A farmer worshipping
> Orlanthcarl may not necessarily know any oxen feats because
> his clan has no history of using oxen.
The liss of Feats given in the rules have always been given as samples, with the understanding that every cult has its own local Feats.
> 3) Different initiation patterns - the Heortling pattern of one subcult
> and one aspect may be unique to the Heortlings. A place in Ralios
> could initiate a boy with an adventurous subcult, an allfather subcult
> and a thunderous subcult instead.
This is well within the variants that I've presumed. The published books give the mainstream form, with TGWV to explain this kind of variants.
> 4) Foreign influences - the Ralians are right next to the Safelstrans
> who were heavily influenced by the Arkati and the God Learners.
The Arkati generally didn't try to change the Orlanth religion. Many Orlanthi of Ralios were suspicious, if not hostile, to the Arkatings because of Arkat's betrayal of their ancestors and his theft of the Unbreakable Sword (which has subsequently disappeared). Sure, some darkness Orlanth pracices seeped in in places, but this has not changed the core religion.
The God Learners of Ralios tried to rope the Orlanthin into their form of Orlanth worship when they were not trying to crush the pagan religion. But they had bigger problems in Ralios, where the nefarious Arkati persisted despite all education, propaganda and persecution. At times the God Learners would even encourage the Orlanthi so that they woudl help the GL aainst the Arkati.
> While most foreign practices can be identified and kept away from
> the main rights, a few others can't be and some foreign practices
> might be so insidious that the Orlanthi take extra precautions to
> avoid this pollution with the result they look extreme to the Heortlings.
I am sure this is true, but it does not affect the core worship.
Finally, the EWF had its influence too. They really damaged the worshippers of Orlanth in Dragon Pass, but even there so traditionalists hid out successfully (especially in Hendrikiland). The EWF were resisted actively by the Orlanthi in Ralios, who did not fall for that "dragon inside" New Age stuff...
Issaries, Inc.
c/o Greg Stafford
1942 Shattuck AVe, #204
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
Powered by hypermail