>> If it's associated with Dark Earth that would
>> explain why the man has discarded it. It may have
>> red wine in it at present but it's been used for
>> blood in the past.
>
>And if he just got told that... It looks like he did
>drop it, it wasn't thrown. The red liquid in it just
>trickled out, it doesn't splash along a flight-path.
>Maybe he dropped it because he needed the hand free
>for something else - defending himself, defending
>Kallyr..?
Yet he hasn't picked up his sword. Rather he's adopted a posture which implies rejection - to what he's being told? He's also fiddling with a red gem on his armband for some reason.
>> I'm not entirely sure about the Dark Earth connection. You
>> don't sacrifice grain to Maran Gor or Hon-Eel but to
>> Esrola.
>
>But axes? That's Dark Earth. Maybe she's here to talk
>about the problems of paying taxes in grain (remember,
>the Kheldon are mainly grain-producers), and has come
>up with a radical way of improving yield. There was a
>spell in KoDP that had that effect, IIRC: any battles
>on clan soil fertilised the ground.
They could just be symbols of protection. Maran Gor is more protector of the Earth in Sartar than the ruler she is in Tarsh. I'd expect any important object associated with Earth worship to have axes ornamenting it. Ernalda relies on Orlanth for protection most of the time but for women's business the defence is Maran.
>> There's an idea - she wants to change the Earth Goddess in Tarsh
>> from Hon-Eel to Esrola by HQing. So she's got a load of ritual
>> stuff from a temple to Hon-Eel and is going to take a sacrifice
>> of grain and red wine onto the HP to prove that Tarsh can be
>> fertile without human sacrifice. I get the impression that the
>> Hon-Eel of Tarsh has adopted a lot of Maran Gor symbols and
>> practices.
>
>(splutter)
>well, it's the right "size" thinking for Kallyr, certainly.
>
>But why Tarsh? Why would Kallyr be interested in Tarsh?
At least half the army occupying Sartar comes from Tarsh. Not so much the elite units but the ordinary spearmen who make up the bulk of the forces. It only became part of the Empire in 1490 and its society has a lot more in common with Sartar than the Empire's Heartlands. She could have heard a prophecy that Argrath will liberate Tarsh and is trying that. That would probably put the scene after the Dragonrise rather than before. If the ritual works she gets a friendly neighbour. If not she has a decent chance of disrupting their next harvest which will make it more difficult to replace the troops eaten by the dragon.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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