me:
> >I would be leery of pushing this too far -- I expect even
> >"scary Humakti" realize that they cannot easily live alone
> >(especially since a really pumped Humakti might have trouble getting
> >food -- it's not like the providing daimones will particularly
> >helpful).
>
>Scary Humakti could always do what soldiers have done since time
>immemorial - menace people into feeding them.
That's true, but if he can't get onto the tula, what is he going to do? Waylay travellers? I'm not sure there is a Humakt the Brigand subcult....
> >I expect that, while clanspeople understand the importance
> >of Humakt and believe that his worshippers are holy when they kill, a
> >Humakti who makes a habit of killing indiscriminantly is going to be
> >on the sharp end of the clan (or tribal) warbands in fairly short
> >order.
>
>That's nice but the question was about responsibility for weregild
>for an unsheathed Humakti, not the ethics and consequences of
>being a rogue killer.
True, but my point is that, even if it's hard to collect weregild from an usheathed Humakti, all that means is that the feud remains open -- the Humakti doesn't "get away" with it. Eventually, assuming the Humakti kills enough people, the clans will begin to refuse him/her entrance to the tulas and, if it gets bad enough, hunt the Humakti down like any other menace.
> >Especially since, without a clan, the Humakti can only enter a
> >tula as a guest, and breaking the laws of hospitality is very
> >serious.
>
>Like weregild, these laws of hospitality are Orlanthi laws and an
>unsheathed Humakti is not obliged to follow them.
As a stranger, the unsheathed Humakti can't expect any more hospitality than a Lunar soldier, and that's what the clans will provide -- a knife in the dark as soon as it's possible/convenient. This applies to the other troublesome cults -- Uroxi are tolerated because they provide a useful service as well as religious function; if their colorful personal lives cause more trouble than Chaos does, they will be encouraged to move on or be dealt with. Same with the Gors, etc. Sure, the combat cults are powerful and their adherents dangerous, but the anger of the clan (and the absence of their support) is deadly, even to the heroic.
I realize that this is wandering away from the original topic, but I see a lot of posts on this list that suggest that Humakti (and other killer cultsist) are given a continual pass because they are such badasses. I don't believe it; the clan will always be a badder ass than any but the most pumped death cultist. They may have no obligation to follow societies laws, but society has no obligation to help (or let) sociopaths live....
Peter Larsen
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