> Jeff Richards wrote:
> > Most Orlanthi clans love their Chalana Arroy priestess, despite the nuisances.
>
> I think most, perhaps nearly all, Orlanthi clans don't have a Chalana Arroy
> priestess. Probably even most Peace Clans don't. Not only are they a nuisance
> to the clan, the clan is a nuisance to them! Far better for them to be
> wandering healers or busy themselves at a central hospital temple, where the
> only people they ever meet are those who are glad to see them do their favorite
> work all day long. Everyday life in one clan just doesn't generate enough need
> for healing for them to feel fulfilled in their life's work: trauma surgeons
> need to hang out in places where the badly wounded congregate, or they get very
> bored just soothing sprained ankles and splinters. If you are content to heal
> people only part of the time, and the rest of the time weave cloth or herd sheep
> while waiting for someone to get hurt or sick, you join Bevara or Heler or some
> other part-time healing cult, not the cult which is obsessed with healing and
> only healing, all day every day.
You just have no idea what keeping a thousand people healthy involves. I try to ensure
there is a part time healer in every stead so someone doesn't have to trail to the other end
of the tula every time a child gets a cough. The clan tries to keep an initiate or devotee of
Bevara, Eninta, Jera and Vorela at all times. By covering for each other we usually manage
although my own daughter was a stranger during the fimblewinter.
I have every respect for the followers of Chalana Arroy but they aren't really part of the clan,
their loyalty is to their goddess not their kin. I've known a few girls who thought they were
dedicated to her but all of them came home and got married after a few seasons working at
the temple in Boldhome.
Donald Oddy channelling senior healer Parzela