Last week we looked at the mythic side of Ernalda and bringing it into a better, more active form. This week we are going to jump into the more practical side of things, primarily the cult of Ernalda and its place withing Gloranthan society. Some of the initial thoughts that launched this restructuring come from this one post from Jeff Richards regarding Leika Blackspear over on The Well of Daliath.

This will mirror a lot of the information found in the Earth Cults book, so I was careful to only include the headers that we are altering. Any headings that are not present here would be considered to not change between our vision and that of Chaosium. And, as in all things, Your Glorantha Will Vary.

The Nature of the Cult

Iconography

Much like Orlanth, Ernalda’s depictions vary based on the aspect being described. In her aspect as Mother, she is depicted as a voluptuous woman, heavily pregnant. In her Bounteous aspect she is shown bearing sheaves of grain or other fruits or vegetables. In her Weaver Queen aspect she is bejeweled with ornate necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. In all her aspects she is depicted as a bare-breasted or nude woman with green skin, copper hair, and one or more snakes coiled around her arms.

Social/Political Power

While Ernalda is not always represented as the wife of Orlanth, in the lands where this is the case, she is considered his equal. No matter what level of society (clan, tribe, or kingdom) the ruler is not sovereign without a marriage to a priestess of the Weaver Queen subcult. This marriage is not required to be one of mutual love or affection for the magic to bind the community (it doesn’t even need to be consummated), but it must exist, if only ceremonially. Ernalda is the source of the land and the people, after all, and without her there is nothing to rule.

This makes her temples extremely powerful in those lands, and the Weaver Queen subcult is considered the owner of the community’s territory. They oversee the land’s use and distribution of its produce within the community. This process is not without input from the local husband-deity’s high priests, of course, who often seek to have their most loyal men-at-arms rewarded with prime lands, but technically these requests are only required to be considered, not acted on.

In Esrolian lands, however, the cult of Ernalda is considered supreme, with the various husband-deities relegated to a secondary status. Within Esrolia stand the majority of the largest and most important temples to Ernalda in all of Glorantha. The many husband-deities (including many unions that are unknown elsewhere) still form an important bedrock of the community, though, acting as the outward-looking arm that of the military and mercantile functions.

Ernalda is also considered an extremely important part of religions across Pamaltela, with numerous temples dedicated to her in other names or guises. Much like in Orlanthi lands, Ernalda is seen as a powerful Queen in her own right, and although she is considered the wife of many important gods there, none control her. She is always seen as independent, powerful, and wise, and those that distrust her councils are often seen to fail in their endeavors.

Finally, Ernalda is also considered a major part of the Aldryami religion, although not as important as Aldrya or Flamal. Here is one of the few places where her connections to other deities are minimized, but this is mainly due to her lack of individual prominence, being relegated to a subcult of Aldrya, instead.

Particular Likes and Dislikes

Ernalda and her temples tend to align with the greater culture in their preferences, but there are some things that they are particularly opposed to, such as Chaos and Chaos worshipers. Unlike Orlanth, Ernalda does not have any major rivalries other than a hatred for Chaos.

In the Orlanthi lands, she has her own set of virtues that stand beside those of Orlanth, overlapping in some aspects but standing apart in others: Fortitude, Wisdom, Generosity, Compassion, Honor, and Piety.

Organization

Much like Orlanth, her favorite husband, Ernalda is too vast to be easily constrained to a single aspect. Within the Orlanthi cultural group there is a tremendous amount of power concentrated within the Weaver Queen subcult. Unlike the Orlanth Rex subcult of her husband, however, the Weaever Queen lacks the emphasis on hereditary control (except within Esrolia itself).

There are three primary subcults within the core Ernalda cult: Ernalda Mother, Ernalda Bounteous, and Ernalda Weaver Queen. Beyond those, there are the cults of the Grain Goddesses, Voriof, Voria, and Nandan which are most commonly accessed through their relationship with Ernalda.

Ernalda Allmother

The most common and familiar face of Ernalda to many, Ernalda Allmother represents the most universal of the deity’s aspects, regardless of a worshiper’s age or location. As Allmother, Ernalda oversees fertility, childbirth, motherhood, and the organization of the home and family. Allmother devotees in these roles tend to the community by ensuring healthy, safe births for both people and animals. The Voriof subcult is closely associated with this aspect, as is Voria.

The Allmothers oversee the foundling halls for the numerous orphans created during the near-constant warfare of the last several decades, as well as caring for children whose parents have responsibilities that make traditional childcare difficult. These include the children of Chalana Arroy or Issaries initiates who are often called to serve at odd times or in distant places, as well as children birthed by initiates of Babeester Gor who aren’t allowed to keep them by the dictates of The Avenging Daughter.

This cult also focuses on the healing and charity work within the community, tending those who suffer injury or other misfortune. This is an especially important function in clans far from the larger population centers without access to Chalana Arroy initiates. These services are rendered without charge, although, like Chalana Arroy, there is an expectation of repaying the kindness with some amount of service, like help tending the children in the foundling hall or working in the temple fields.

Ernalda Allmother is a sacred reflection of the creative capacity of women, and as such only those who have had children are initiated into this subcult. Thankfully, because of the rune magic at their disposal, this is never a pathway that is cut off to those who wish to pursue it, even those few men who initiate through the Nandan subcult.

The subcult is headed by Earth Mothers, Rune Priestesses who exemplify their goddess’s creative powers.

Ernalda Bounteous

Ernalda in her Bounteous aspect represents the fertility and abundance of the earth and agriculture, and her primary worshipers are farmers. She blesses the crops and ensures bountiful harvests, and from the abundance her priestesses store tithes of produce and grain as a protection against famine and other misfortunes.

Overseeing the construction and maintenance of the numerous silos and granaries prevalent on temple grounds fall to them, as well, and these storehouses prevented many deaths during the Windstop and during other times of tribulation. Otherwise, initiates travel through their communities to bless crops, address blights and insect infestations and work with Orlanth Thunderous (or Heler) initiates to ensure the best harvest possible for the community.

While the community can provide their tithes to Ernalda Bounteous in the traditional money or produce, giving a day of their week to work the temple’s fields is the preferred sacrifice. Commonly associated with the Orlanth Thunderous subcult (or, less commonly, Heler), and the two are often worshiped together. It is through Ernalda Bounteous that most clans access both the Grain Goddesses and the Barntar subcult, as their shrines are commonly located within Ernalda Bounteous temples. Finally, Ernalda Bounteous is the aspect of Ernalda that most appeals to the Elves, due to her association with plants and growth, central aspects of their culture.

The subcult is headed up by Rune Priestesses called Grain Mothers who exemplify the fertile earth aspects of Ernalda.

Ernalda Weaver Queen

The Weaver Queen subcult emphasizes Ernalda’s place as Orlanth’s wife and equal, and is worshiped primarily by queens and other leaders within communities. Closely tied to the Orlanth Rex subcult in Sartar, its membership can be inherited in some places while its merit based in others. In all cases, however, this aspect is an agent of the cosmic order, using her wisdom and skill with words to weave together the various strands of a community into a cohesive and functional whole.

Ernalda Queen is the leader when Orlanth Rex is away at war, but even in peace she is the one to oversee community building projects, tax collection, and even the drafting of treaties and agreements in lands civilized enough to have such formalized means of cooperation. She is often integral to the community’s interface with the temples of both Issaries and Lankor Mhy, and serves as Orlanth Rex’s primary advisor. This means she is considered the first among equals within the clan or tribal ring, and her delegation of responsibilities is often the key to a community’s survival in hard times. It is from this subcult that the famous “There is always another way” motto originates, and it is of central importance to their function within society.

The everyday members of this subcult are referred to as Weavers, referring to the mythic role that Ernalda had in the Great Compromise and the weaving of the Net of Time. The head priestess of the subcult is always married (ceremonially if not romantically) to the head of the Orlanth Rex subcult (where the Orlanth Rex subcult exists), and are referred to as Queen. This position is considered a Rune Priestess, and is the equivalent to the Orlanth Rex Tribal King position.

Temple Organization

While there are some similarities to the organization of the Orlanthi temples, Ernalda’s worship extends far beyond the lands of Orlanth and her temples are thus much more diverse in their nature. There is still the tendency towards ubiquitous shrines in smaller communities, with clans often centering around minor temples and tribes around major one.

Unlike Orlanth subcults, however, each shrine or temple encompasses all three aspects of Ernalda. Some even refer to her as a triparte goddess in this way (although this “three-ness” is also shared with her crone-like mother Asrelia and her maiden daughter Voria). That is not to say that each holy place cannot have a certain emphasis, such as the Clearwine Temple being the center of Ernalda Queen worship, but this massive temple also houses large contingents of Bounteous and Allmother devotees and ceremonies.

In minor temples, the Chief Priestess is chosen by the clan assembly and works in tandem with with the Chief Priest of Orlanth, as their cults are often so interwoven within the everyday working of a clan as to be inseparable from it, and many ancestral worship practices also fall within this purview.

At the tribal level, the senior-most Ernaldan Priestess is the Weaver Queen married to the tribal Orlanth Rex. This is not just custom, but a divine requirement that underpins the natural order as the Orlanthi see it. The Weaver Queen acts with the Chief Priestesses to order and guide the trabe as a whole, and unlike their Orlanthi counterparts, there are no secondary oaths to lieges or other authorities. Their only concern is to the stability and safety of the people and their lands, and the greater politics falls to the Rex. The only exception is when the Rex’s actions place the people in danger, at which point the Queen is oathbound to stand her ground and attempt to talk her husband around, just as Ernalda served as the voice of reason with Orlanth so many times during the GodTime.

Conclusion

I don’t engage much with the mechanical aspects of the RuneQuest game (I use the setting in other systems, predominately my own DragonRune) so I have left the details of the skills required to initiate into the various cults as well as the specifics on which Rune spells each cult offers to any GMs who actually use those rules. I don’t feel I have a clear enough grasp of the details to offer anything meaningful in that regard.

I do hope that Glorantha-philes find it interesting, especially any who were turned off by the submissive nature of Ernalda in the modern version of things. My table has had a lot of fun with this, and my players only know this version of Glorantha at this point (although they know I’ve changed it, as I told them upfront that the information in existing sources is secondary to what I present).

It will probably be awhile before I delve into more of these, as my Glorantha group just resurrected our game out of the blue this last week, so I will be doing some more session reports, at least for the next few weeks.