Looking at Cult Distributions for the Lunar Provinces (Aggar, Holay, Imther, Tarsh, and Vanch) tells a fascinating story. There are a little less than 1.4 million humans in the Lunar Provinces. Looking at the Provinces as a whole, the largest cults (those with over 10k cultists each) are:
- Ernalda 167k
- Seven Mothers 164k
- Orlanth 132k
- Yelmalio 72k
- Pelora (Oria) 52k
- Hon-eel 51k
- Lodril 41k
- Hwarin Dalthippa 40k
- Issaries 20k
- Oslira 20k
- Chalana Arroy 18k
- Lhankor Mhy 13k
Looking at it as a whole, there is a big Lunar belt stretching from New Lolon to Furthest and centered on Mirin’s Cross. But beyond that, the Provinces are pretty much Orlanthi. And it also has a few interesting localized cults like Jajagappa (with less than 10k cultists in total), some enclaves of the Shargash cult and over 5k wagoneers. There’s also a lot of Storm Bull cultists in Aggar – there are about three times as many Storm Bull cultists in Aggar than in Sartar!
Etyries? Quite small in the Provinces. Less than 10k members.
Is this is what creates the Tarsh civil war situation? If you look at the numbers, that not really the case. There are 850k Seven Mothers cultists in the Heartlands, another 110k in the West Reaches, and only 164k in all the Provinces. So basically about 15% of the cult in the Provinces – 75% in in the Heartlands.
The Tarsh civil war fundamentally comes down to two things:
- A king/provincial governor being worried about being overthrown by a more powerful cadet wing of his own family.
- A well-connected Heartland noble clan that wants the riches and prestige that is currently being given to a no-name provincial.Fazzur is an extremely competent military captain, but also one with no real ties to the imperial court – except through his nephew. The defeat of Orlanth and the conquest of the Holy Country is the sort of things heroes and gods are made of – no wonder House Assiday manoeuvres to have Fazzur replaced with someone who seeks to become the newest star in the Lunar pantheon.
Pharandros has to go along with this – he’s just a provincial client king, with kinship ties to the Eel-ariash family (who also lost another minor governorship). But Fazzur enjoys the support of many of those officers and soldiers who served him, and now he has no outlet for his ambition. And he has two talented sons. What is a king to do?