Re: Exclusive Worship

From: donald_at_wOjV_w2IiQuELwR2BWjH5hYDukgQ6dzi1zXdcg_GsT0webTqKRzzUWMgk6RqY4UX--Fn-
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:54:42 GMT


In message <g4f3us+c5hq_at_eGroups.com> "Jeff Richard" writes:

>> I suspect not, otherwise it would be practically impossible for Lunar
>> Missionaries to make any headway;they would be asking potential
>>converts to turn their backs on the whole of Heortling society.
>
>That is exactly what new initiates to the Lunar Way are doing. Prior
>to the Lunar Conquest, clansmen who initiated to a Lunar god would be
>cast out and outlawed - just as if someone initiated to Jagrekriand or
>came back worshipping Malkion.

While I can see individuals treating converts this way it seems very intolerant for this type of society to do so. Heortling culture is bottom up rather than top down. The primary loyalty is family, then bloodline, then clan, etc. So when your cousin comes back with some strange new idea you tell him he's daft and to help with the weeding. Routinely excluding able bodied adults because their ideas are wrong is a sign of fanatics who are either in power in a top down society or minority groups in a larger society. So your description does fit the odd clan run by Uroxi but not the typical clan of Durev farmers.

In any case I think the Lunar missionaries are subtler than pushing for full conversions. They set up their temples, make worship open to everyone and offer minor magic for "What you can afford when you can afford it". Over a period of time the missionaries gain community respect and some full converts. During the fimblewinter they are going to do very well.

>With the Lunar Conquest, that's harder to do - most Lunar converts
>are under the protection of the Lunar Army. Kill them and you pick
>a fight with the Empire.

Which is little or no protection in a rural area like most of Sartar. Sure Lunar missionaries can call on the army if their temples are threatened but who is to know if an ordinary convert dies - "He was kicked by a cow and the healer was too late to save him".

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

           

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