Re: Re: Getting ahead with Vinga

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 13:43:17 -0700

> Maybe head taking wasn't always required to take a power, but
> certainly it seems to be one way to do it, especially if you want to
> make weapons, rather than just taking the power into yourself. Of
> course, maybe Orlanth was just getting poetic revenge when he did to
> Yavor as Yavor did to Umath?

I don't dispute that Mythic Head-taking existed, or that gods took powers from it. However, in the number of 'God X stole powers from God Y' myths, head-taking is probably way down on the list of "most popular forms of Magic-Stealing". (No, I'm not going to catalog all the myths and how powers were stolen, I leave that as a exercise for the reader).

Its certainly not enough to justify Vinga (or anyone else, except Thanatar) from using it as her modus operandi. I don't think that John's conflation of the Bransh and Yivril myths equates to "Vinga steals power by taking heads". Nor does a single example (there may be more, I ain't checking the books for 'em, though) of Orlanth Stealing Power by Headtaking equates to "The Storm tribe takes heads to steal power". There are other reasons to take heads (as previously noted on this list), and other ways to steal power.

Stealing Power via Headtaking is (imo) a really small minority practice.Taking Heads for other reasons is probably a slightly greater minority practice, and Not Taking Heads is the majority practice. While most people will look slantwise at someone practicing Headtaking, I do believe that Not All Headtaking Is Chaotic, and that the Headhunters unit is not (necessarily) Thanatari.

RR