I have read elsewhere that the Uleria cult is disliked by the wife
cults of Glorantha, such as Dendara or Ernalda. The rationale for this
is that wives are jealous of the worshippers of Uleria and treat them as
home wreckers. However, I disagree with this generalization as the way
that wives treat others is a very cultural thing and does change from culture
to culture.
What I will try to do here is to quickly sketch out what I think the
attitudes would be in certain cultures. Mainly these will be the Solar
culture of Dara Happa and the Orlanthi culture of the Theyalans but if
I can think of how this affects other cultures then I will add those later.
In the Yelm - Dendara model the husband takes a wife for status, companionship and to produce an heir. Sex is frowned upon in the Dara Happan culture as they are extremely prudish and conservative so they treat sex as something that is necessary in order to produce children. Those who enjoy sex are treated as deviants or people of loose morality. Not surprisingly this causes its own share of problems.
Dendara wives know that their husbands may want to take concubines. This may be for several reasons - the husband may wish a second or third marriage for political status or to cement two noble houses; the husband may wish to take a concubine from a defeated house to shame that house; the husband may be ritually obliged to take his wife's sisters as concubines; the husband may have defeated an enemy in battle and needs to take his wives as concubines; the husband may have gained a concubine through HeroQuests.
There is also another reason why men take concubines - lust or love. This is seen as shameful in Dara Happan eyes but is tacitly acknowledged to be fairly common. There is a story of Spemus the Selfish who maintained that he loved his wife so much that he would never cleave to another and never took concubines. It is said that he coupled with his wife every other day or sometimes every day and that she wasted away under this onslaught and shame until she died. His brother, Spetus the Wise loved his wife so much that he took many concubines and rotated them equally so that he only visited her for coupling once every fortnight or so. She was healthy and lived to an old age, not shamed by her husband's attentions.
Similarly, those men who are of low status and cannot afford concubines will visit the Uleria Temple to perform ritual obligations and to purify them so that they do not make excessive demands on their wives. Most Dendarans welcome this as it means they do not need to submit to the animalistic demands of their spouses.
Those who follow the Yelm - Ernalda model know that Ernalda was a concubine and that being a concubine is a natural state of affairs. The concubines of a Yelmite are not jealous of each other but do have a certain amount of professional rivalry and do tend to jockey for position. However, they do not see others as threats and also welcome the visits of their husbands to the Uleria Temple as a welcome respite.
Those Yelmalians who follow the Yelmalio - Ernalda model do not take concubines. However they do worship at the Uleria Temple in order to reduce their appetites and take the pressure off their wives. However, both husband and wife treats this as a ritual obligation, the husband does not take as much pleasure out of it as the Yelmite might and the wife treats it as something that he must do rather than a relief. Yelmalians are somewhat more sexually repressed than normal Yelmites and tend to ignore sexual matters until they rear their ugly heads.
Bachelors in both Yelmite and Yelmalian areas visit the Uleria Temple in order to protect other women from their lusts. They know that sex is a dangerous matter and should be performed only within the bounds of marriage, at certain times, in certain places and in certain ways otherwise it can grow in an uncontrolled manner. However, they also know that Uleria also knows the rituals to quench the ardour within the Uleria Temples without awakening the sleeping monster. Given a choice between the Uleria Temple and shaming themselves with a single or even a married woman, most will choose the Uleria Temple.
The only times that a Dara Happan wife is jealous of other women is
when the husband has a relationship with a woman who is not a concubine
and outside of a Uleria Temple. This is seen as shameful and dangerous
as unprotected sex, sex that happens outside the ritually protected marriage
bed and outside a Uleria Temple, can awaken the sleeping monster and turn
the man into a bestial animal. Such things are considered dangerous enough
to warrant a divorce as the wife does not want to be contaminated by the
husband's evil lusts.
The one exception to this is when wives or husbands are ritually obligated to take lovers or concubines, perhaps as part of a HeroQuest or ceremony. This is accepted behaviour and is seen as a religious duty, not one of the heart.
Orlanthi husbands rarely enter the Uleria Temples as their wives are
more accommodating than those of Yelmites. Even bachelor Orlanthi do not
use the Uleria Temples as much as their Yelmite counterparts, simply because
pre-marriage sex is not frowned upon as in Yemlic cultures.
Pentians have harlots who belong to certain cults but these are not normally Ulerian. These women serve the bachelors and also have ritual significance. Married men rarely ever consort with these as they are treated as taboo.
Any Pentian may take slave girls and have sex with them. These women are not treated as wives or concubines but the relationships are recognized as being normal. Wives and concubines are often raided between clans and are treated as new concubines. Sometimes young women are stolen from neighbouring clans and taken as wives or concubines and this is normal practice.
[End]