So lets look at how the Lunar religion spread and who joined and how quickly
Lowland Peloria. The Seven Mothers cult spread quickly here. Remember the Seven Mothers are Friendly to most Solar cults. So the holdouts are among the peasants (the Grain Goddesses are Neutral) and the River People (Oslira is Hostile). But Yelm is Friendly and even better – Associated with the Red Goddess and Red Emperor.
So there are few barriers to the Lunar Way becoming not only accepted but fervently embraced. It is stronger in the urban areas than in the countryside. On average about 35% of the population in any satrapy belongs to a Lunar Way cult, and likely has for centuries. If we add Yelm into the mix, that goes up to 38% or so. The highest is the Silver Shadow where some 55% of the population are initiated into a Lunar cult (if we include Yelm).
West Reaches. The Lunar Way did not find a fertile field here. After four centuries, still only about 25% of the population are initiated into the Lunar Way.
Lunar Provinces. Here the Ernalda, Orlanth, and Yelmalio cults were barriers. However, colonies from the Heartlands were settled in Saird (and Furthest) and very slowly kinship groups embraced the Lunar Way. Remember, we have almost three centuries of Lunar presence here. But I do think the Lunar colonies are still the source of most Lunar initiates.
On average, about 25% of the population of any provincial kingdom belongs to a Lunar Way cult with Tarsh having the most, and Aggar having the fewest.
The Seven Mothers are well resourced, but don’t seem very effective? It’s comparable to what many real-world missionary religions likely did over the same amount of time. And likely far more successful than the Orlanthi were when they ruled Dara Happa in the late First and Second Ages. And they also have well-established missionary cults.
A similar question can be asked about what happens to the third of Tarsh’s population that follows the Lunar Way after Furthest falls to the Sartarites. The likely answer – most remain dedicated to the Lunar Way. Some might become lay members of Orlanth and Ernalda, but relatively few leave the Seven Mothers to become Orlanth or Ernalda initiates.
As the numbers suggest, Lunar missionary work did an incredible job of spreading the Lunar initiation through lowland Peloria, with over a third of the people being initiates and probably most people being at least lay members. In the first few generations, lots of people initiated into the Lunar Way as well as their friendly traditional cult (Lodril, Polaris, Dendara, Entekos, etc.). But the following generation, many just initiated into the Lunar Way, and that increasingly became the norm. Most Seven Mothers activity is around keeping it that way.
It hit more hostile ground in the Pelorian hill country, where only a quarter of the population are initiates, and many of those are the descendants of Lunars who settled there. But still plenty of people are at least lay members of the 7 Mothers and hostile cults down to around 15% in Holay. That’s likely not because a lot of Orlanth cultists became Lunar initiates – rather it is that those communities were less successful on the long run than those communities that were Neutral towards the Lunar Way and accepted the Lunar deities as part of the magical terrain (even if they didn’t initiate into their mysteries). And far less successful than the Lunar colonies like Furthest, Mirin’s Cross, etc.
What were the main barriers in the West Reaches? History, the framework of the so-called Carmanian heresy, preexisting local mystery cults, a rump of cults that stubbornly resist incorporation into the Lunar Way. That kind of thing. Even so the Seven Mothers is the largest single cult.
The spread of the Lunar Way really can only be compared to the spread of the Lightbringer missionaries. Now the Lightbringers had the advantage that they were really the first – they were dealing with small groups who might have had a single shaman operating as a spirit cult. They spread incredibly fast – UNTIL they hit people who had their own religious system of cults and priesthood. And then conversion pretty much hit a roadblock.
cartography by Lawrence Keogh