Chaotic [was Re: Uroxi sense]

From: Peter Larsen <peterl_at_...>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 09:23:01 -0500


At 12:02 PM +0100 8/29/02, Graham Robinson wrote:
>Torture is only chaotic if done outside of normal society bounds. So, the
>chief orders/allows you to torture the lunar prisoners for information,
>that is okay. You torture a person kidnapped from another clan for fun,
>that is chaotic.

        I think this is part of the key to the question -- eating human flesh is (for humans, for Uz it's just breakfast, lunch, or dinner) OK within certain social constrains, mostly magical -- the Maran cults, the Cannibal Cult, etc. This is not chaotic. Groups that make a regular practice of it (the Tarshites, some Praxians, the Tusk Riders) may be seen as evil, bad, nasty, and enemies, but they aren't chaotic. Ogres eat humans in order to eat humans; that's chaotic -- specifically the definition of being an ogre. (Many of the other elements of ogre "culture"-- worship of Cacodaemon, for example -- are not really germane to this discussion.) People who eat their companions while lost in the mountains in Dark Season does not necessarily become chaotic, but they might find themselves with a taste for human flesh. The flaw would be pretty low if they ate a dead companion once, higher if they subsisted on dead companions for a while, still higher if someone had to "volunteer to die so that everyone else could live," and highest if one or more people were murdered to provide food (like drinks, mixing sins is harder on you than sticking with one). Getting rid of this flaw would take purification, sacrifice, and HPs. Failing to get rid of it might a) make the ancestors mad and b) induce the character to "non-emergency cannibalism," and chaos follows pretty quickly after that, both for the character and their clan. Or that's how I see it.

        This applies to other chaotic acts, too -- the Char-Un rape for a variety of cultural reasons; they are nasty but not chaotic. However, I'm willing to bet that a fair number of Char-Un overstep this tenuous "cultural safety line" (which is probably "don't rape tribe mates") and become Broos, raping for the sake of raping. No doubt the Char-Un Shaman have ways of telling who is on the edge and arranging for their purification or death (which, knowing the Char-Un, might be preferable to purification). Perhaps since the Empire came, there is a special "Rapists Are Also Us" squad that the Emperor keeps confined somewhere until a nasty terror weapon is needed, and the Shaman pack the incorrigibles off there, unpleasant as that idea might be.

        For the Heortlings, cannibalism and rape are not the threats, but violence. Umath's sons and brothers all accept that "Vilolence Is Always an Option." However, a certain number of their followers come to believe that "Violence Is the Only Option," and they worship Urain and chaos. Here again, the point is not the violence, which is normal, but the violence for the sake of violence -- not to prove a point, satisfy honor, resolve a dilemma, or some other reason. Ironically, I bet Uroxi are prone to this sort of chaos -- killing chaos becomes killing anything or no reason. Naturally, their fellows hunt them down in short order, but it could be a guilty secret of the berserkers....

        Kinstrife, which shatters the community bond and ruins the protective magics, is not chaotic, but the doorway for chaos. Cultures without this prohibition, Dara Happa for example, don't suffer because their magic and wards are not affected. They have other prohibitions (rebellion calls chaos for the DH, I'd bet) to guard against.

        Anyway, I think "sinning for the sake of the sin" is the point where nasty or antisocial behavior becomes chaos.

Peter Larsen

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