So? Simply because Greg has now decided that all Orlanthi women must be Vingans, Leika has become a Vingan and that's been the case ever since the publication of KoS whether you like it or not.
>In the
>Colymar material that Greg and I have cowrote (coming to Tentacles!),
>Greg revealed that he now views her as a Redaldan (Runegate Triarchy
>and all).
I see. Pull mystery stuff that nobody has ever seen out of your arse and pretend it's canon. And when and how do Redaldans become Tribal Chiefs? From the same mysterious text of Thunder Rebels that claims Barntar to be a widely worshipped subcult of Orlanth?
While I'm in the frame-of-mind, I shall comment on the Vingan controversy since I avoided doing so the first time around. I can accept Greg's point that Vinga is, in terms of gender, a male. However that does not alter her sexual desires any more than an medieval actor does when he plays a female role on stage. All that happens as far as I can see is that the Vingans will have some difficulty if they want to marry a man. An Orlanthi-Ernalda marriage is out (unless her partner is a Nandan) but the Orlanthi are tolerant of Helering relationships.
That said - the way you have been arguing for this has two modes of nuance: hamfisted and cackhanded. I don't really give a fuck how strange you find women in combat to be (but I daresay there are clubs in Krautland that are willing to cater for your outlook). It's not really relevant to Vingans simply because it's an out for a retcon Greg imposed on the cult of Orlanth so people with modern outlooks can continue to play Orlanthi.
Nor do I give a shit whether you like Vingans or not. I don't like grotarons neither but you don't find me moaning at length about them. Simply denigrating Vinga as strange and wierd misses the point that the Orlanthi have even stranger and wierder cults (Kolat, Heler, Humakt) which nobody makes a fuss about.
I do find your claims that Ernalda is a wonderful cult to be preposterous and verging on the notion of women as the gatekeepers of the eternal unconsciousness that was popular where you are several decades ago. Ernalda is an interesting cult, Ernalda is a socially useful cult but Ernalda is still a fucking boring cult to play and no amount of rhapsodizing by you or Greg can change that. What does she do in the Great Darkness? Go to sleep and let the others sort it out? Hardly a heroic rolemodel for people to be interested in let alone emulate.
Greg for all his attempts at making Ernalda a viable alternative to Orlanth is simply failing on all accounts. There is no significant Ernaldan hero - all you've could come up with is some Sairdite tart adept at playing politics. Look at the Lunars - there are two heroes there with cthonic powers: HonEel and Hwarin Dalthippa. But when it comes to a goddess whose significant achievement in setting the world to right was through giving Orlanth the silent treatment, no comparable heroines come to mind. Look at the NPCs that grace the Thunder Rebels - Entarios the supporter is the least interesting of the lot.
Forget about making Ernalda interesting. She's intrinsically immune to such efforts. Attempts to portray her worshippers as heroes is like writing a sourcebook on the catholic church and depicting the nuns as heroic and worthy of respect. You just end looking like a sad dick who doesn't know anything about women.
--Peter Metcalfe
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