"Sex, sex, sex, that's aaaaaall they ever think about!"
I've always been under the impression that Nandan the Loom Man was more of entrance to female community roles in the same way that Vinga provides access to the fighting and other traditional male Orlanthi roles.
A Vingan siring kids or a Nan-dandy having babies is probably not the point of the exercise.
One of the things that has always struck me as a future problem when I was helping with Storm Tribe was that there was very little in the way for males to engage in crafting. Issaries, for example, really isn't about crafting - he's about the trading and travelling and communicating.
However, among the women, there are plenty of cults involving weaving, cooking, pottery, and so forth.
What is a budding gourmet chef to do? Or a man who knows he's a damned good weaver? Nandan provides this access. I suspect that in the cities and towns, with their larger sedentary crafter class might have a much larger respect for this cult than among the more 'manly' tribal areas where fightin', herdin', and farmin' are the only really acceptable ways of making a living for a man.
There are, as Donald points out, also fewer need for everybody needing to join the fyrd in the towns too.
It also occurs to me that we never actually learned what god - or goddess - Geo the Cook followed. I have always felt that he was an Nandandy who spread his own cooking-and-hospitality cult as a part of his worship.
On the other hand, it may be that there's just a whole lot of "Pella's Brother" cults which mimic the female craft and community cults but considering that there isn't such a set of these for the female community (if there was, we wouldn't need Vinga in the first place) I suspect it unlikely.
As to the Birtthing Man? Well, I suppose you could do a heroquest or join a subcult of Nandan that.. well...
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA:I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But... you can't have babies.
LORETTA: Don't you oppress me.
REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's
the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: [crying]
JUDITH: Here! I-- I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't
actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault,
not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS:Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your
right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry
I just think that it had to be said. Personally, I'll just stick to cooking.
Jeff
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