Donald:
> > I don't think this is likely. Nandan is the
> gateway to female roles
> > just as Vinga is the gateway to male ones. If a
> Nandani feels a
> > need to adopt a male role they will switch to the
> appropriate
> > subcult of Orlanth.
Same here. I don't know much about Nandan (does anyone?) but "the birthing man" implies that his entire "purpose" is to give birth.
> If a Vingan is a woman who wants to occupy a male
> role, while a Nandani is a man who wants to be a
> woman then they might handle it differently.
(nods). A Vingan isn't necessarily even as generic as "a woman who wants to occupy a male role" - Vinga is a warrior, not (for instance) a ploughman. I'm not sure what route *is* open to a woman who wants to be a ploughman. Quite possibly none - I gather that low-tech ploughing requires weight and strength, and you can't make up for the lack of them by brains and nerve, like you can with fighting. Sure, they can still get the ploughing done if they have to, just badly :(
A woman who wants to father children? Tricky. Unlike strength and weight, the ability to father children is on/off. But then I doubt if there's any mythic need for it, in Glorantha. A group of women with no men *can* produce children - the Earth Tribe seem to manage parthogenesis. Men with no women have a problem, to which Nandan is the solution.
Where that leaves men who want to perform a female role while remaining male, I'm not sure. It probably depends on which female role we're talking about.
> So it might be the case that a Vingan wanting to
> perform a female
> task might turn to Ernalda, while a Nandani wanting
> to perform a male task might turn to Vinga.
Looks like Vinga does female household tasks rather than male ones, when she's not fighting. "During this time, Vinga stayed at home to learn from her female kin. She joined the Weaver Women in the Loom House, and was as adept in the arts of the hearth and stead as she was at fighting. She even made their same old tasks easier one day when she measured out fields for her mother and sisters by hurling her javelin exactly one mile from each marker rock."
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