I'll have a go. Chaotic acts are *universally* chaotic. They don't depend on your viewpoint, they depend on the relation of the act to the chaotic being that act worships. Saying "la la la, I don't think this is chaotic so I'm okay" won't work (though if your story needs it, some Lunars could certainly *believe* it's true).
> I mean, the ogres became ogres for eating human flesh, but there are some
> cannibals in Glorantha that are not chaotic at all.
Right - eating human flesh is not a chaotic act, in and of itself. It's the secret murder in order to consume the flesh in order to show you are so much superior to those consumed, who are just cattle compared to you - i.e. consuming human flesh *in the manner of an ogre* that causes the problem.
> Human sacrifice without the rites of Ana Gor is an act of Chaos, but there
> are some cults that sacrifice humans without this rites and have
> nothing to do with chaos.
This sentence contradicts itself - the rites of Ana Gor are used by (most) modern Heortlings, but there are other rites available that work just as well. Heortlings would see "proper" human sacrifice (for some sense of "proper") as automatically invoking Ana Gor, as she *is* human sacrifice. I doubt they would see, say, HonEel corn rites as *chaotic* - wrong, evil, etc. sure, but not chaotic. Human sacrifice is only chaotic if performed by or for the benefit of those who are already chaotic anyway.
> Violation is chaotic because Thed is
> chaotic, but violation existed before (the vadrudi, for example), and
> the world is made of everything; what about malkioni? Most of them
> doesn't know Thed at all; I'm sure they think violation is evil and a
> big sin, but I'm not sure they consider this 'unnatural' or 'chaotic'.
The Malkioni do, as I understand it, have a concept of chaos. Rape is not, normally, something which is causes *by* chaos, but something which *causes* chaos. The breaking of the world was caused (in the Malkioni view) by the behaviour of the vadeli, the arrogance of those sorcerors who travelled into the east and called themselves gods, etc.
To a small extent, however, I disagree with Peter's blanket denial. There is a small cultural component to chaos, in that chaos appears where the normal rules of society break down. Not are bent a bit, but are shattered. Rape is often a cause of this, as many societies see it as a huge sin. The CharUn are pretty much immune to the chaotic aspect of this, as they don't see it as a cultural issue in the same way as, say, the Heortlings. Kinstrife is a huge problem amongst the Heortlings, but other cultures are pretty much immune to it. One of the sources of friction with the lunar way is that the lunar empire encompasses cultures for whom fighting with your brother is normal.
But despite these differences, the *underlying* cause is universal - a shattering of society. That is the universal definition of a chaotic act.
Cheers,
Graham
-- Graham Robinson graham_at_... Albion Software Engineering Ltd.
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