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Clan Making Dance ritual?


HeartQuintessence

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31 minutes ago, HeartQuintessence said:

Do we know what the Clan making Dance ritual actual entails?

Making a clan means bringing together different parts into a whole.  Whether a dance or music (or both), it likely starts with distinct independent movements and beats, unique to each group that will be part of the clan.  Maybe those create dissonance, or conflict.  The clan making dance must find a way to weave those together.  This may be different for different clans.  In some clans it may be distilling out and whittling down to a few movements or rhythms or melodies, and then constructing something new and distinct out of those.  In other clans, those pieces remain distinct and identifiable, yet perhaps shifted in a way that they form a harmony over time (now an Earth part, now a Fire or Storm part, etc.).  What predominates (if anything does), may highlight whether this is a Peace clan, or a War clan, or something balanced.  It might highlight whether certain minority groups or families are "enslaved" to the larger form, or blended in.  

There may be other ritual parts of the dance.  Putting on masks for each role at the start.  Adding costumes.  Giving gifts to others.  Selecting certain dancers to become the "leaders" of the new dance.  Etc.

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While it is impossible to generalize authoritatively, a likely form would have a kind of audience-choir element composed of the majority of attendants who may perform easier, less complex movements and song elements, and they're likely to be spatially peripheral (maybe encircling) and then you have the specific narrative elements carried out in a more central, observable space, by specialists. This is pretty common in many traditional ritual dances (and impromptu, just think of a spontaneous dance circle for example). 

It's also possible the group is divided into representing the different elements as a whole, like some kind of pageant or synchronous dance group, but ultimately there are always going to be individuals who can't contribute much beyond simple elements (the very elderly, toddlers, etc.) so the more complex, the more specialized, I guess.

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My feeling is that many rituals and ceremonies were lost during the Greater Darkness. Since the Silver Age, the Orlanthi created and shared new Ceremonies and Rituals that worked or somewhat worked. Which leaves plenty of room for wide variation by region and history.

Having said that, I vaguely remember some source with a warning not to try to make the world revolve around one person (i.e. Lokamayadon / Loko Moko) while comparing it with the Foundation Ritual used to create a clan, which does exactly that. I'm assuming that this is around the first Chief and possibly his allied spirit, that could become the Wyter. I believe that there are several different models for obtaining the first Wyter, which also include choosing a local nature spirit, promoting a subsidiary spirit when a clan splits, and just calling out for a volunteer spirit.

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9 hours ago, Charles said:

My feeling is that many rituals and ceremonies were lost during the Greater Darkness. Since the Silver Age, the Orlanthi created and shared new Ceremonies and Rituals that worked or somewhat worked. Which leaves plenty of room for wide variation by region and history.

Having said that, I vaguely remember some source with a warning not to try to make the world revolve around one person (i.e. Lokamayadon / Loko Moko) while comparing it with the Foundation Ritual used to create a clan, which does exactly that. I'm assuming that this is around the first Chief and possibly his allied spirit, that could become the Wyter. I believe that there are several different models for obtaining the first Wyter, which also include choosing a local nature spirit, promoting a subsidiary spirit when a clan splits, and just calling out for a volunteer spirit.

Well  to your last point:
The clan making cannot  revolve around one person. Great point, I am still sort of transfixed how do things, for my Star Hearth Clan.

The young girl-child who created the flower path ( she's somewhere between 9 and 10, maybe as old as 11), too young to be any kind of leader as she is not yet even a woman.

 

The Tula itself is a mystical place- Voria's Garden, cause it some kind of beautiful Green Age/Dawn Age like ferility, and yet also facing Time's ravages, as these women and their livestock step into it.

This clans first chief will most likely be the flower-dancer's mother- Tefa, Koza-mother- The Heroquester who brough the tribe their sheep- she is an Ernalda, was never a Vingan,  though now I realize that she'd also become the Wyter's Priestess and suddenly realizing that handing essentially a sheep sheering housewife- they 'keys' to the White lioness (a Yinkin Daughter), who's 'pact' with the big ram  Chief Bronzehoof- to be her first sacrifice as she hunts him to push the clan to the Tula and then make him her first sacrifice as the clan's wyter) is actually kinda awkward.

The proto-clan has basically been watched over by the Lioness, for the entire time its been gathering strength. The Lioness was a hunt-sister to Vinga, and Ernalda adopted the lioness as a daughter(or maybe into the earth tribe), so she's a little more than local nature spirit. 

This clan making dance might happen at the next sacred time- at this point ,since they'd be arriving potentially during say The middle of Sea Season- and putting down roots and learning the lay of the land is going to take them several seasons, I suppose.

I do wonder if because I had puzzle elements in isolation: The Proto-clan, its various female heads, for their Water, Fire(Velka Starhoof- Grazer), Earth(Umeka & Tefa), and Air groups, but the build the cool idea for lioness as Wyter -t to help reinforce the idea of a Pride of a Lionesses doing things for themselves (mostly)..  So ostensibly I've tried to give as many people as I could some  cool space.

 

 

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19 hours ago, HeartQuintessence said:

Do we know what the Clan making Dance ritual actual entails?

A Sacred Dance, with other elements to it. This would allow the dancers to create something new out of something old, to allow new members to come in and join the dance, to create new roles and positions that fit the dance and make the clan work in harmony. The dance might be based on the dances of the old clan, if a clan has split, or be the fusions of dances from several clans, or might be a brand new dance. Sometimes the dance will be led by a powerful person, the clan chief or shaman, but sometimes it is equal, with a new clan ring taking the lead together, or with everyone in the new clan dancing without anyone taking the lead.

19 hours ago, HeartQuintessence said:

We know Ernalda and Orlanthi did it at the Dawn to make the Storm Tribe.. .but what about Earth & Fire, and Darkness tribes?

Some Earth tribe clans would have a similar dance to Orlanth's/Ernalda's, but some would be very different. Praxian Clans would have a dance based on Waha/Eiritha/Storm Bull, for example. Darkness Clans might be very different and might not even have a Clan-Making Dance in the same way. Uz clans tend to be descended from one or more powerful individuals and their families, bound by darkness and blood. Fire clans might claim descent from a Hero or Emperor.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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33 minutes ago, HeartQuintessence said:

The young girl-child who created the flower path ( she's somewhere between 9 and 10, maybe as old as 11), too young to be any kind of leader as she is not yet even a woman.

Glorantha has a history of child leaders, like the Household of Death, or Illaro's successors. Nysalor was three years old when he caused the Curse of Kin in the Battle of Night and Day. Jar-eel was in diapers when she was instrumental in accelerating the Thaw in eastern Fronela.

Have you heard about the Apis priestesses in ancient Egypt? Identical twins, serving from 4 years old or so while their sacred bull lived, and later living off a dowry. (There is a papyrus documenting a crime when the new husband of their mother had taken away their dowry and squandered or hidden it.)

And that unfortunate child in India which had absorbed much of her unborn twin and was born multi-limbed would have faced a life as an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi, too.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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I havea heard of a few of theses, but not all of them (well not the Glorantha ones).

But now I am curious how  that works in Glorathan.

Tefa Woolvoice- The Koza Mother, is an Ernalda, and her daughter Kevashala- was conceived on the herquest to get the Koza( apparently).  So while Keva maybe being set up to be the next chief of this clan, ( and going to probably marry one of the native men-folk of their Tula) I  struggle to understand how  to push her toward being a leader.

I do like it thought, Kevashala growing from outsider girl, to the first woman emerging on the Tula (and there by cementing how they do their Female Initiation rites). Should be interesting.

 

My head visually has some kind of 'flower shape made out of people, link interlinked rings or something, able to ever expand (the way water can fit into any container), but also forming a wall (Earth), the space between the people allows Air to flow(covering theirrune)  I am not sure how to mix and Fire Rune & the Moon Rune?

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