Well Humakt actually BEING merciful might be one of those little delusions humans need. But I think there needs to be a balance between testing and actually killing people.
>
>> The important thing to Humakt is that a would-be devotee has to be
>> prepared to bring Death where it is needed - and NOT to abuse his
>> power by killing willy-nilly.
>
>And this is why. If the candidate has to kill person X as a test,
>then there must be excellent reasons why X has to die. And if it
>turns out that Y is dead instead, those reasons either still exist
>(so go and find X and try again), or they were faked. And if they
>were faked, Humakt is going out of his way to decieve his
>worshippers. God of truth, honour, etc? I think not.
I see your point, but I think that a temporary deception, in the name of revealing a greater truth ("Now you KNOW you would do it") might be acceptable.
>
>> If you want to make your Humakti really grim, that's up to you -
>but
>> I wouldn't want to rule out a fight to the death between player
>> characters as part of a test
>
>Nice idea, but not one I'd want to use myself.
>
>> OR to actually kill a player character
>> just for a Devotion test (at least not without a way out
>
>Well, I'd accept killing the candidate if they failed, but not
>another PC who's just playing opposition. Not without the players
>agreement, anyway. Using NPCs as the test seems safer all round,
>given that this *is* a game.
The problem is that another PC might BE the character's best friend - wannabe Humakti aren't the sort who are popular and make friends easily. A Humakti Devotion probably ought to involve A death, but if you include too much death what do you do if someone wants to be a Disciple ?
-- -- "The T'ang emperors were strong believers in the pills of immortality. More emperors died of poisoning from ingesting minerals in the T'ang than in any other dynasty" - Eva Wong _The Shambhala Guide to Taoism_ Paul K.
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