Orlevings and Greenstone Temple

[Goldennose]

Are Ernalsulva and Entarios the Supporter Orlevings? Or is the Earth Temple apart from Malani Tribe or Clans surrounding it?

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Caras said:

Are Ernalsulva and Entarios the Supporter Orlevings? Or is the Earth Temple apart from Malani Tribe or Clans surrounding it?

GM Screen Pack, Adventures book, page 56:

Quote

Orleving Clan: This influential clan occupies the Ormsthane Vale. Ernalda is their patron deity and the major temple to the Earth Goddess at Greenstone is within their lands. They have feuded with the Varmandi clan for centuries.

 

So yes, Orleving.

[Joerg]

 

I would have expected the major temples to work analogous to urban guilds - effectively a clan of their own, headed by the resident high priest(ess).

[Scorus]

2 hours ago, Joerg said:

I would have expected the major temples to work analogous to urban guilds - effectively a clan of their own, headed by the resident high priest(ess).

In my game they are theoretically administratively separate, but in reality they are heavily dependent upon each other politically. You can see that in the Colymar/Earth Temple relationship in the GA. The Orleving conquered the Greenstone Temple area from the Varmandi in days of yore and you can bet they made sure that their own people were the next generation of leadership.

[Leingod]

I would say that a major tribal temple like Greenstone has members from across the tribe, but the clan whose lands they're on/closest to would be where you see the most, and would likely be the most influential in the hierarchy.

[coffeemancer]

eaglebrained readers will remeber that Heortal, from the cattle raid quest, says that the orlevings stole their (varmandi) goddess. even though he doesnt really know what that means, it still pissrs him off. Might be related...?

[Joerg]

If you collect all the claims made by the Varmandi in the Adventure Book, you will find that they once ruled over Ormthane Vale, upper Swan Valley and upper Arfritha Valley.

This sounds a bit like they came here shortly after the Colymar clan as a huge peace clan claiming vast tracts of land, losing a little to Hiord and Safeela, and almost all of it when the Tree Triaty and the Malani came up from their intermediary settlement area on the Stream.

Or maybe that's the area of influence of the Greenstone Earth Temple - possibly from back in Orgovaltes times - with the Clearwine temple covering what became the Black Spear clans' territory and beyond the Starfire Ridges in Lismelder Valley, and the Three Emeralds temple being the sovereignty temple for lands further south all the way to the Cross Line (unless Whitewall has an ancient Ernalda temple of similar influence which extended a bit north of the Crossline).

It is close to a miracle that there still is a Varmandi clan - first they lost the settlement area around the Greenstone Temple, quite likely with at least part of the tenants who were subject to the temple, then they provided at least a quarter of the people who made up the new Antorling clan after that Tree Triaty clan had been destroyed in the Zarran War, and in addition to the people living on clan lands, there are several households living in Apple Lane who identify as Varmandi but don't live with the clan.

[Leingod]

On 10/24/2020 at 10:29 PM, Joerg said:

If you collect all the claims made by the Varmandi in the Adventure Book, you will find that they once ruled over Ormthane Vale, upper Swan Valley and upper Arfritha Valley.

This sounds a bit like they came here shortly after the Colymar clan as a huge peace clan claiming vast tracts of land, losing a little to Hiord and Safeela, and almost all of it when the Tree Triaty and the Malani came up from their intermediary settlement area on the Stream.

Or maybe that's the area of influence of the Greenstone Earth Temple - possibly from back in Orgovaltes times - with the Clearwine temple covering what became the Black Spear clans' territory and beyond the Starfire Ridges in Lismelder Valley, and the Three Emeralds temple being the sovereignty temple for lands further south all the way to the Cross Line (unless Whitewall has an ancient Ernalda temple of similar influence which extended a bit north of the Crossline).

It is close to a miracle that there still is a Varmandi clan - first they lost the settlement area around the Greenstone Temple, quite likely with at least part of the tenants who were subject to the temple, then they provided at least a quarter of the people who made up the new Antorling clan after that Tree Triaty clan had been destroyed in the Zarran War, and in addition to the people living on clan lands, there are several households living in Apple Lane who identify as Varmandi but don't live with the clan.

A huge Peace Clan that got successively attacked by quarrelsome invaders and had to get hard to survive... or maybe a War Clan that claimed a huge territory because they got way too big for their britches when they arrived early and thought they could become a tribe in themselves like the Colymar did and were proven very wrong. After all, if Greenstone Temple was where "their" goddess was stolen from them, it's interesting that the aspect of Ernalda most worshiped there is Enferalda, essentially Ernalda-as-Backboy who supports Orlanth in battle (this also plays into my conspiracy theory that a lot of the Colymar-Malani conflict throughout history, including the Zarran War, has actually been, in part, anyway, a long-running proxy war manipulated by Clearwine and Greenstone Earth Temples in their competitions over temporal power and spiritual supremacy in the region).

Anyway, I personally like to think of the Varmandi as that one run I'm sure we all tried in King of Dragon Pass where you try to play the most quarrelsome, bullying bastard of a War Clan you can, seizing as much land and going on as many raids as you can possibly manage without pissing off someone too big and getting wiped out. And their run has been... not entirely successful, but they aren't dead yet, so clearly they're doing something right.

This has made them convenient catspaws and scapegoats, not just for the Clearwine Earth Temple to use, but also the Colymar kings, which is probably a big part of why they're still around.

Edited November 20, 2020 by Leingod

[Scorus]

My memory is that the Varmandi settled in the Arfritha Vale, got kicked out and settled in the Ormthane Valley, then got kicked out of there and ended up in their current location, which has very little agricultural value (which led many Varmandi to migrate to Antorling when it was founded). They are a war clan now, though there is enough memory of their peace clan days that the women of the clan elected a peace leader prior to Korol Serpent-Tongue.

In my game they have a strong and necessary reciprocal relationship with the Hiording where the Varmandi serve as military allies while the Hiording provide them with food, there is much intermarriage between the two including in the leadership. The two share rivalries with the Taraling and Orleving (though in the Varmandi-Orleving case it is a feud).

The Orleving-Varmandi "border" is particularly sketchy, with each side claiming territory well beyond the line on the Colymar tribal map. For instance, the Orleving claim Tarkalor Keep while the Varmandi claim Rainbow Mounds.