Just to throw in my 2 cents,
I had no problem at all with the rug-throwing - it made perfect sense to me as a reader, even without the Icelandic references. Now, granted, I am in a bit more in-depth position than some, but it resonated mythically with me when I read the original MS. And yes, there are times that I *have* told Greg "this just doesn't make mythic sense" at something someone has submitted, or even when Greg wrote something that just "felt wrong". There are times where all the mythic elements just mesh for me (for instance, I literally went "WOW!" when I read John's stuff for TR/ST), and sometimes where a story/scenario/writeup don't do it for me.
How do we know that this is what Orlanthi Women do? Well, the author of the scenario *says* so, and it was approved by Greg. The fact that it wasn't stated to be "the way" in ST/TR shows that the game evolves and grows, and that there are nuances to Orlanthi Culture that the authors of those books didn't think about (or didn't think were important enough to mention) at the time.
The books are meant to be inclusive, not exclusive. If something isn't mentioned, it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen or exist in Glorantha, it means "make it up if you need it, we didn't see the need". As the SR series grows, we'll find out more about the Sartarites: what they do, what they have, and how they believe. If it doesn't say anywhere that "Orlanthi don't like strongly flavored Cheese", then you are free to say "They make the best Double Sharp Chedder in the world", or "Monterey Jack is the strongest cheese that they will stomach, and none of this Pepper Jack nonsense, either!" or vary Cheese preferences between Clans/Tribes/Sartar vrs Tarsh vrs Heortland. Heck, we don't know how the Orlanthi like their steaks: Broiled, Roasted, Marinated, Bar-B-Q, Pepper, Chicken-Fried, With Gravy, With Mushrooms (suateed, garlic, raw?)... If it matters to *you*, then describe it the way *you* think they should do it.
Even if a game book says "They don't do X", you can always explain that *your* clan does, empatically, do X, and they have the myths to prove why they are perfectly right to do X. "We eat Goat, and like it, because of a pact made between our ancestor and the King God of Goats during the Great Darkness. No, we don't see them as chaos-tainted just because Broos happen to have some parts that look like goats, we kill any Goat-Broos that we come across, and there are none around here because we keep a close eye on our flocks of goats, unlike other Orlanthi that weren't so lucky."
RR
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