Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Role of the Earth Goddesses

Posted on January 2, 2024

Wherever people work the soil and raise plants or domesticate livestock, the Earth Goddesses are revered. Some places, where the male ruling deities have unquestioned authority, they are little more than the local Grain Goddesses. In other lands, Ernalda is a power that must be acknowledged and women are revered for their magical potentials.

In most lands, the Earth Goddess is protected by a husband deity or deities – Yelm, Lodril, Orlanth, even Storm Bull or Argan Argar. As long as the husband deity protects Her, cares for Her, and respects Her rights and authority, the god rules in most other areas. For example, in Dragon Pass, the Feathered Horse Queen is co-ruler with her husband (to avoid having to rule with another, most Feathered Horse Queen take consorts rather than husbands).

But in a few areas, the Earth Goddess is the ruler. Esrolia is the best example of this – a survival (or restoration) of pre-Gods War practices. Ernalda THE Earth Goddess takes husbands who serve as protectors, but Ernalda remains the ruling deity.

Have there been instances of Aldryami coming into conflict with human Earth cults? In general, the Earth Priestesses and the Aldryrami are able to find common ground. The cults are associated and can work together. Pastoralists often come into conflict with the elves. The Praxians in particular used Oakfed to burn down the elf forests in Dragon Pass. Remember that the goddess of these crops is Aldrya’s mother.

I don’t think there is that much of a conflict between the Aldrya cult and the local Earth Goddess cult. Such conflicts are likely rare and driven by personalities rather than fundamental issues.

But I suspect there are often conflicts between Aldrya and the Husband-Protector, especially Lodril, Orlanth, and Argan Argar!

I find it useful to remember that the Earth Goddesses underlay almost every agricultural or pastoral human society. The Lightbringers, Solar, or Lunar deities might rule above the Earth, but the Earth is always there, feeding humankind, and bringing forth new life. These goddesses are the foundations upon which civilization can rise.

How about the social effects in Esrolia where Ernaldan queen’s rule? Esrolia is an Orlanthi culture that – during the height of the Great Darkness sought survival with the Earth Goddesses (with all the husbands dead).

Esrolian culture is largely egalitarian between the sexes, with the Earth Temples being the ruling temples (unlike in Sartar where the Orlanth temple is the ruling temple). Cults like Issaries, Orlanth, Lhankor Mhy, etc., govern themselves as normally would. However, the Earth Goddess does not appoint a single Husband-Protector, but acknowledges all of them, and then mediates between them.

So for an ordinary male farmer, this is not all that different from his kin in Sartar. The kinship group is headed by an Earth Priestess instead of a Big Man. But our farmer worships Barntar or Thunderer just like his Sartarite kin. The Thunderer temple is headed by a Storm Voice (usually male). The Lightbringers are all there, just as in Sartar – but the big difference is that the Earth Goddess reigns supreme as opposed to her husband. This is Her home after all!

Esrolia is the best example of an area ruled by an Earth Goddess. What about others, like Pelanda? Pelanda is not a matriarchy or Earth Goddess ruled land. It is ruled by the Yelm cult and by the Lunar deities now. There are echoes of the older Earth cults there, which are remembered by story and myth, but it hasn’t ruled itself in over an age.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Aldrya, CoR-EG, Pelanda

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Grasslands of Prax

    Something to keep in mind about Prax. The grasslands of …
  • Praxian Kinship Groups

    Praxian tribes are divided into smaller kinship groups or clans, …
  • Lunar Resettlement of Tarsh after 1460 ST

    After 1460, large sections of Peloria (especially east of the …
  • The Spread of the Lunar Way

    In the Lunar Provinces, about 26% of the total population …
  • Gods of Fire and Sky and the Lunar Way

    The Gods of Fire and Sky co-exist alongside the Lunar …
  • How Much Land is a Hide?

    So in RQ, a “hide” is a unit of accounting …
  • Agricultural Data for RuneQuest

    Back in the late 70s and early 80s, Greg‘s only …
  • Farming in Dara Happa

    In anticipation of the Fire/Sky Book, here’s a few notes …
  • Farming in the Big Rubble

    There are some 1600 humans in the Big Rubble, with …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • creating a spirit cult of Fralar
  • Thoughts on running an Animal Nomad/Praxian game
  • Fillable excel RQG character sheets?
  • Where is there a list of temples in Dragon Pass?
  • New on the Jonstown Compendium: Many Suns
  • Secular and religious hierarchies
  • Subcults vs Associated Cults
  • Gorgorma and Dendara's Chess Game
  • Merged deities
  • Elf plant ships and dwarf stone ships

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tapatalk post Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Spirit Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • ISS1102 Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars (2000)

  • Dragon Pass – A brief outline (2013)

  • Some Fronelan Population And Cultural Details

  • Notes on Fronela III

  • Notes on Fronela II

  • Notes on Fronela I

  • Hon-eel Temples and Shrine

  • Seven Mothers Temples and Shrines

  • Ernalda Temples and Shrines

  • Barntar Temples and Shrines

  • Babeester Gor Temple and Shrines

  • Voria Shrines

  • Ty Kora Tek Temples and Shrines

  • Asrelia Temples and Shrines

  • Maran Gor Temple, Shrines and Site

  • Odayla Shrines

  • Humakt Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Orlanth Rex Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Hippoi Shrines

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme