> This was a bit confusing to me as well. As far as I can work out,
> Vingans normally gets the Combat and Movement affinities listed on
> p174 for their Vingan aspect. For their subcult, they can choose
> from the Vingan Subcults (Defender Storm, Red Woman/Avenger,
> Spearwoman) and the Orlanthi subcults listed in Thunder Rebels.
Yip, this is basically it. A woman has two paths to worship of Vinga.
Any (Ernaldan) initiated woman may undergo Vinga initiation (basically male initiation) to become a Vingan. The default aspect is Vinga Spearwoman, with Defender Storm and Red Woman (Avenger) also being common. A woman who has undergone Vingan initiation can join any Orlanth subcult: in fact it is possible (though rare) for her to join an Orlanth subcult *only* without continued involvement in a Vinga cult. (I'd love to be a moth on the hearthstone when a recently-initiated Vingan explains *that* to her sponsors. "Yes, I love the Goddess, and yes we've all laboured long for me to gain the gnosis, but hey, those Helamakt leathers look so darn cool, and the band don't like me hanging round with the women.").
Any woman (i.e. anyone initiated to Ernalda) can also worship Vinga through the extreme (and usually temporary) vow of the Red Woman. This is yerrr classic Vinga the Avenger scenario, and is a shared Ernalda/Vinga subcult. One vengeance is enacted, the woman can return to Ernalda (and fertility) or undergo Vinga initiation to become a permanent vingan initiate or Devotee.
Vinga has few subcults proper: as Gateway she has access to all the Orlanth subcults, from Dar to Orlanthcarl to the Thunder Brothers. The cult is a little complicated because of the unique role of the Loyal Daughter - she is Goddess, Aspect, Gateway and Thunder Brother all in one. There is also more regional variation in her worship than with other Orlanthi gods.
Some of the more important regional variations - the Pathfinder and Uz aspects familiar from KODP and the solitary 'Aife/Scathach' type warrior-teachers of the Far Place have been further detailed by Ian Thomson, Jane Williams and myself, and will appear in Tales #20, along with some other Vinga-related material.
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_... John Hughes
Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
-Terry Pratchett, Men At Arms.
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