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The Cult of Pavis III

Posted on June 29, 2024

Pavis has a total of about 1700 initiates and another 2500 or so lay members in all of Glorantha.

About 500 of those initiates live in the Big Rubble, where they form the largest human cult inside the Rubble. There are another 500 lay members in the Big Rubble.

About 300 initiates reside inside New Pavis where they form the heart of the Old Pavic community. There are another 2000 or so lay members in New Pavis.

About 200 initiates reside in and around the village of Indagos.

About 700 initiates belong to the nomadic Zebra Tribe of Prax. Now Pavis does not provide tremendously useful magic for the Zebra Tribe, but the small elemental summoning spells do come in handy. Nonetheless, the Zebra Tribe view the Big Rubble as their sacred home.

See also:

The Cult of Pavis I
The Cult of Pavis II

Now I love that the Zebra Riders – once upon a time Pure Horse Folk – are now wandering the plains of Prax with their zebra herds, acting as go-betweens with the other tribes, but also still repeating “to a year to come in Pavis”, as they remember their exile from the city in the early Third Age.

For nearly a century they’ve had access to the Big Rubble, and often serve as mercenaries to whoever rules New Pavis. The tribe has Zebra Fort and Zebra Pens, but most of the tribe still roams the plains of Prax.

Why were most of the Zebra Riders exiled in the first place despite being members of the Pavis cult? There were “exiled” because Pavis fell to the trolls. The trolls sealed the gates and walls, and the Zebra Tribe were left outside.

So apparently at least one person has been shocked that Pavis has fewer initiates than Orlanth or Ernalda inside of New Pavis, and about the same as Storm Bull or Humakt. How can that be?

Pretty easy. Most of the residents of New Pavis came from Sartar. They don’t identify with the Second Age history of Lord Pavis and his ruined city – they identify with Dorasar who founded New Pavis, and with Sartar and Orlanth. That’s their founder. When the Sartarites came to build New Pavis, the high priest of Pavis and the colonists’ high priest of Orlanth negotiated a settlement yielding ground and buildings to Pavis and the air to Orlanth. An exchange was made, giving the Orlanth locals use of the Pavis facilities and the spirits of Pavis were joined by an air elemental. Since the agreement with Orlanth, Pavis became the patron god of Pavis Outside the Walls as well as over the Rubble, and the Sartarite colonists worship him as well as their own gods. This is handled well by lay membership.

As for Humakt and Storm Bull, their cults are swelled by the warriors that follow Argrath.

Jeff Richard

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Brad Foster (artist), Cult demographics, Indagos (small city), Pavis (cult), Zebra (Praxian tribe), Zebra Fort (Big Rubble), Zebra Pens (Big Rubble)

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