>The Orlanth religion in Ralios broadly follows that described
>in TR and ST, although there are plenty of new local hero cults and
>subcults. In contrast, the Storm religion of Umathela does not
>broadly follow that described in TR and ST, although there are some
>strong similarities.
The Umathings [the "Orlanthi" of the southern continent] weren't (re)introduced to storm worship by Heortlings.
It's my belief that the gods have few if any strong opinions on how they should be worshipped (consistent with their nature -- healing goddesses usually don't respond well to violent sacrifices). If the gods did care, then misapplied worship would correct itself. So humans come up with their own rules, part superstition, part half-truths. You can't just make up gods, but you can figure out a way to deal with them that works as well as anything else you've tried. And if you have something that works, why risk offending the gods by trying something else? Again, I think this is why people practice misapplied worship.
So after various God Learner outrages (such as perhaps suppressing Orlanth worship entirely), the Umathing people came up with their own ways (perhaps partly remembered from way back, perhaps partly new) to contact the Other Side. Same gods as before, but if say you don't realize that your storm god can teach kingship magic, you'll end up with a different religion. Not misapplied, but different.
Also, it's my understanding that travel between Ralios and Dragon Pass was somewhat easier during the Imperial Age. So with lots of contact between the two Orlanthi groups, I'd expect more common practices. (Alakoring is an obvious example of this.)
Again, the Umathings were on their own since the Closing (and likely before, given their use as God Learner test subjects), so they would tend to diverge rather than converge from the Orlanthi norm.
In the Barbarian Belt, I'd expect the areas adjoining Dragon Pass to have Orlanth worship that's fairly close to the central Heortlings. You could easily find a Ralian clan that's no stranger than the strangest Sartarite clan. More-distant Fronela would be less similar. Perhaps no Fronelan clan would fit into the realm of Sartarite variation, but many would be no stranger to a Ralian than the strangest Ralian clan. And Umathela's significantly more remote, and is likely to look the least similar to Thunder Rebels.
(BTW, Ralios is a pretty large place, and there are two groups of Orlanthi that are probably as different as Heortland and Tarsh.)
-- David Dunham Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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