7 mothers, lightbringer temples, world dominance

From: gjobbins <nuanarpoq_at_...>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 10:58:58 -0000


recent posts on 7 mothers thread (which to my regret i haven't had the time to read in full), plus events from my own campaign have got me thinking about intra-temple relationships in the Occupied Territories. i'm sure these questions have been asked and answered before, but:

as far as i remember, when the lunars arrived in pavis, frex, iripi ontor cultists moved into the knowledge temple, and etyries priests started to edge out the issaries cult. on one level this can be seen as simply mundane competition - both commercial and religious/cultural - with the invaders trying to assert a hegemony. at another level, as Glorantha isn't a mundane world, presumably the bureaucratic and political battles over control of 'the knowledge temple' between different cults is part of a very real struggle between the gods themselves.

i was wondering specifically about war temples, otherwise known as humakti temples. sometimes, my guess is, they are just humakti temples - e.g. when centred around the site of one of the God's deeds. other times they are War temples, where the humakti cult just happens to dominate, frex Tourney Altar or 'the temple as mercenary hiring hall' set-up, which is the impression i always got of the humakt temple in Pavis.

So, one question is; is the Yanafal Tarnils cult trying to take over the, e.g., Pavis war temple in the same way as irripi ontor is trying to take over the knowledge temple?

Another question is this; if yanafal tarnils took over all the war temples in Dragon Pass, would that be enough to establish himself as 'the War God of Dragon Pass'. would humakt then become a subcult of yanafal tarnils? ditto for irripi ontor & Lhankor Mhy, Etyries & Issaries... and even Deezola or any other healing goddess and Chalana Arroy, i guess.

the reason i ask is because i notice that in ST Kargan is included as a subcult of Humakt. this, i surmise, is because humakt eventually surpassed his teacher and 'defeated' Kargan. this is especially pertinent to humakt, as of course Yanafal was a humakti who eventually defeated his own god in combat (again, pupil overcoming the master). would a humakti rune lord in 1620 or so, before the tide turns against the empire, be under the impression that he was fighting for the very survival of his god?

to take this idea further than is probably sound: if the lunars, god-learner like, realise that they can 'tame' enemy deities in this way, why aren't they establishing priets of a 'tame' storm god (er... shargash? sorry, Poor Lunar Mythology 5W) in temples to rival orlanth? then, instead of saying 'worship of orlanth is banned', they could say "worship of orlanth is is permitted only through these rites..."

anyway, enough of this verbose speculation. please tell me why i am wrong.

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