Re: Humakti Wolves

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_gsidanet.danet.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 20:41:53 EST

> >FWIW, Stephen P Martin's suggestion that the Humakti might also use Wolves
> >seems unnecessary, confusing, and even dangerous, given the strong local
> >presence of the Telmori in Ralios. Unless we're looking at "post-Telmori"
> >bandit tribes, maybe similar to the Wolf Princes of Syanor (mentioned in
> my Carmanian Anabasis notes, on the webpage).

> Now, it may not be a Ralian belief, true, but some Humakti, somewhere,
> use wolves to hold their spirits. At least they did at one time. I agree
> that the Telmori link troubles me, but it could also be a "conquered foe"
> type of relationship.

My take was always that some wolf tribes converted to Humakt in the earliest days, like the Ralian Cattle tribes converted to Orlanth. The personalities of a wolf pack and a mercenary unit are too similar to avoid the association. This would be "pre-Telmori" rather than "post", and was wrecked when the chaos-tainted Telmori were created by Gbaji. Note that later Telmori in in Sartar take on the same sort of quasi-Humakti role as the original bodyguard of the Prince/King, before the time of the Household Of Death.

This association may still exist among Umathi tribes long isolated from the main Orlanthi conflicts and the Impure Telmori (ie, Yggs Islanders, Umathelans, etc).

Of course, at the time of conversion he was called Humath in Ralios, instead of the later Humakt, but the idea holds good for any god of professional warriors, and probably could be traced back to Kargan Tor's School in the Courts, by determined researchers.

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