[Glorantha] Ralian Orlanthi

[Peter Metcalfe]

Jeff Richard

>Me>Ralios is simply too big to be a land just for beast-worshippers.

>Are we talking at the Dawn?

Yes.

>  If I recall (and Greg can correct me),
>at the Dawn, pretty much all that was left of human cultures in
>Ralios were a bunch of beast-worshipping Hsunchen (or other beast-
>worshippers like the Galanini) and probably a few other fairly
>pathetic survivors.

Whether the people were pathetic or not, it's the _nature_
of the survivors that my post was talking about.

>When the Theyalan missionaries came to Ralios
>in 130, there was only one glimmer of civilization and that was
>about the Felster Lake.

"Only one glimmer"?  According to a fan source that Greg has
no problems with contradicting time and again since it was
published.

> >So to sum up, the lowlanders worship a God Learned version
> >of Orlanth that they believe dates back to the Storm Age
> >while the highlanders worship a "Heortling" version that
> >they believe has a similar ancient pedigree.

>I doubt it.  Although the God Learners were familiar with Orlanth
>(as a result of interaction with the Ralian Orlanthi), I doubt they
>imposed a "God Learned version of Orlanth".

So who was Worlath then and what was his role in the
Monomyth?  Considering that Worlath's been known to the
Malkioni since the lesser darkness (One of Zzabur's myths
is about him), I seriously doubt they needed post-dawn
interaction with Ralian Orlanthi to know who he was.

>I think the Ralians
>received Orlanth worship from the Theyalan missionaries,

To me, the suggestion that post-dawn Orlanth worship comes
from Heortland reeks to me of a "all pyramidial structures must
have had their origins in Egypt".  Orlanth is a far bigger god than
just the local Storm God of Dragon Pass.  He had brothers
worshipped as far afield as Fronela and Genert's Garden
in the Storm Age.  There's nothing to prevent his worship
surviving in places other than Heortland considering his
cosmological importance.

> >In any case, the modern cult of Humakt in Ralios is not
> >going to be the same as the Heortling cult but somewhat
> >different like the Carmanian cult.

>As I understand it, the Ralian survivors adopted the Orlanth
>religion pretty much in its entirety - like the folk of Talastar. I
>suspect the cult of Humakt in Ralios would look extremely
>familiar to a Heortling.

I'm confused.  Why would the Ralians (note well, that I referring
to all Ralians and not just the highlanders) adopt the Orlanthi
_pantheon_ in its entirety?  The Talastari were Orlanthi since
the Storm Age and so had good reason for adopting the Heortling
rites but that's not true for over half the Ralians.

--Peter Metcalfe