Orlanth

Official Cult

Author: christopherallison

To the clans who populate Quiviniland, Orlanth epitomizes all which a man can be in society. He is the Chief of the Storm Tribe, commanding the winds and the clouds. He destroyed the world by loosing the power of Death, and he created it anew by leading the Seven Lightbringers to liberate Life and Light from Death. He made the first clans and brought justice to the world. The iconography of Orlanth varies from clan to clan. Amongst the Colymar clans, Orlanth is usually shown as a vigorous man, armed with the thunderbolt and other warrior’s weapons, and wearing a chieftain’s torc and arm rings. The temple to Orlanth at Clearwine Fort holds an oaken column, with each of the four sides depicting a different aspect of Orlanth (Warrior, Thunderer, Farmer and King). In the ancient hill forts, there are tall stone plinths that depict Orlanth surrounded by, and presumably strangling, tangled draconic knots. In the dark Kitori forestlands, Orlanth is depicted simply as a menhir with the Storm Rune prominently displayed. Before the Dawn, Heort learned from the Second Son the mysteries of I Fought We Won. Heort returned to the Vinkgotling survivors in the Darkness and gave them Law, the Ring of Orlanth, clans and initiated them according to the rites of Orlanth. The grateful Vingkotlings made Heort their king and his people are now known as Heortlings. Heort’s initiation rites form the basic cult of Orlanth as found in every Heortling clan, and allows men to worship the many gods through his rites. It is said that the folk to the far west (the Haranding tribes) have a different initiation rite, even though they still worship Orlanth.