Aeolians and spreading the faith

[jajagappa]

42 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

I am guessing that maybe some of "saints" ascended masters, whatever are emanations of the Orlanthi Pantheon... maybe St. Xemela is actually Chalana Arroy as an example.

I think each of those old saints could be an aspect of the Orlanthi Pantheon somehow. Might run with that, easy enough to sort out.

Emanations are simply gods (not saints or ascended masters).

Think of it this way: the Invisible God created the world and then produced the emanations as more specific forms, closer to the material world. These are the gods, particularly the Lightbringers but also the Sun, the Earth, and other deities. 

These Truths of the Invisible God were revealed first to the prophet Malkion, and later to the prophet Aeol (who might or might not be Orlanth or an avatar of Orlanth). Subsequently, the Aeolians worship both the gods (according to their caste) and the Invisible God (through the intercession of the wizard-priests). The Aeolians are blessed by both the Invisible God and the emanations.

The saints/ascended masters don't really play a part in Aeolian tradition - they have the emanations/gods, so no need for such aside from the prophets.

52 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

Do the Aeolians have a group of traders that would indirectly/unintentionally act as missionaries and "spread the faith"?

The Aeolians are not a missionary group, but as noted elsewhere are an endogamous group (much like the Druze or Yezidis) - they maintain their cultural traditions but do not spread their traditions to others. As both they and the Heortlings honor the same set of gods (e.g. Orlanth, Lightbringers), they can clearly interact tolerably with each other. Issaries as one of the Lightbringers is one of the emanations they worship, and merchants among the Aeolians will worship him as well as the Invisible God.

56 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

Fertility magic aside, has the Aeolian population stayed relatively constant over the past 2-300 years on the Heortland Plateau? Guessing they don't marry out of the Aeolian ethnicity?

Yes, presume fairly constant; and as above they do not marry out.