Exubae said:
Voriof said:
Oh, and Esrola is just another grain goddess. She's listed there and provides (I think) Ernalda with association. I miss having the Herd Goddesses in the book though.
Depends on the source - In HQ Esrola is an aspect of Ernalda and ties the Crop and Animal goddess together - but thats a fairly Orlanthi perspective and stuffs the crop goddess for other uses other than Orlanthi.
Esrola should be bigger than that, in the Shadowlands, at least. She is the wife of both Lodril and Argan Argar, Queen of the Castle of Black Glass, Queen and Land/Earth Goddess of the land of Esrolia and so on. Very powerful locally.
Exubae said:
One thing I found a little confusing is having the Dragon Slayer aspect of Orlanth as a seperate cult (nothing wrong with it - just found it odd).
When the main Empire in central mainland and eastern Genertela are Draconic, then it makes sense to have DragonSlayer as a separate cult. It would get more important in the next few years, reach a peak and then suddenly interest should abruptly fall, sometime after 1100.
Exubae said:
Anyone got ideas how other 'sub cults' should be implemented - whether they should be seperate entitites or just provide alternative Runespell to Lords/priest but follow the same core as the parent cult.
i.e.
Ohorlanth sub cult of Orlanth Thunderous
No longer provides Thunderstone, but instead grants Thunderbolt
Spells to specific cults only available from the subcults shrine/temples.
(This is how I've set up the cults - extending Voriof's cult templates with the subcults)
I've never really liked the HW/HQ model of one main cult and many subcults.
I feel that subcults are very minor indeed, just add-ons to main cults.
So, deities that in HQ are defined as subcults should be main cults in RQ. They may have subcults themselves, reflecting the Aspects of the cults. They may also have subcults of Heroes, minor deities and magical items.
Despite this, Ohorlanth the Great Storm would actually be a subcult of Orlanth Thunderous, in my opinion, as it is controlled by Orlanth Thunderous.
But, cults such as Heler, Helemakt, Varanorlanth and so on should be cults in their own right. Having said that, the Thunder Brothers have a place as subcults of the Orlanth cults and I can see them being worshipped as subcults in areas where there isn't the need for a main cult. In that case, they'd give one or two spells to the main cult and you can use the HW/HQ models.
Vinga would have magical weapon subcults, as did Orlanth in RQ2/3.
But, of course, these forms are Long Form cults and don't really belong in something like Cults of Glorantha.