[Glorantha] Esrolian Earth Tribe

[Donald R. Oddy]

In message <f91200f10612171017k6d617ce5ga33691f112df7fdd at mail.gmail.com> "Jeff Richard" writes:

>>> Greg and I have written a lot on Esrolia recently - some of it will be
>>> published in the Unfinished Work coming out next year.  Esrolian
>>> culture is definitively not a "reconstruction of what they think the
>>> Earth Tribe religion was before the men mucked it up."  The Esrolians
>>> resemble Orlanthi culture far more than you all tend to credit.  Or
>>> another way of looking at it, the Esrolians are essentially Orlanthi
>>> ruled by their Grandmothers.

Which doesn't contradict the idea that the Esrolians believe that
they have recreated the original Earth Tribe religion. Even in the
real world there's a lot of political mileage in going back to
what is believed to have been done before. In Glorantha myth is 
going to make that tendency even stronger.

>>Right. There IS no Earth Tribe religion. Even the myths don't seem to be
>>around much anymore. It is one of the victims of the god's war for all I
>>know.
>
>That's not quite right either.  Orlanthi worship gods they identify as
>belonging to the Earth Tribe (sometimes called the Earth Family) as
>well as gods they identify as belonging to the Storm Tribe.  And
>others as well.  Ernalda is queen of the Earth Tribe and Orlanth is
>king of the Storm Tribe.  These groups are not independent religions
>but constituents of the Orlanthi religion - which includes worship of
>Storm gods, Earth goddesses, Fire gods and so on.

There's also the issue of Earth Goddesses who have nothing to do
with the Storm Tribe. Dendara and Gorgorma in Dara Happa, Baskora
and Azura in Rinliddi but also Great Spirits such as Eiritha who
seem to be closely related to the Goddesses.

>The Esrolians practice the Orlanthi religion (with Imarja as their
>main otherworld entity and with Oredana as an independent goddess),
>but mainly propitiate Orlanth instead of initiating and devoting to
>him.  The Esrolians view Orlanth as a dangerous member of their own
>pantheon (much like most Dara Happans view Shargash), but they
>certainly recognize the god.

So who do men initiate into if not Orlanth? Or aren't men generally
allowed to initiate? I find it difficult to understand the idea of
an Orlanthi religion without the worship of Orlanth being a core
part.

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