So basically you are relying on appropriate circumstances turning up ? I suppose that a Gloranthan universe might oblige but it's something that makes me a little uneasy.
>
>> >As a player, yes. So the character is as I
>> describe:
>> >in-game, and ignoring the fact that he's a PC, why
>> >does he do this?
>>
>> I'm just pointing out that a more realistic
>> situation few friends,
>> with the most important ones being other PCs rather
>> than just one friend.
>
>That's your idea of realistic?? (shrug) YGMV...
As the sort of thing likely to happen in a game, yes.
>
>He hasn't even got any followers?
Maybe, maybe not. But in my (admittedly limited) experience Followers are to close to "faceless extras" to be likely candidates for "best friend".
>
>Ignore that fact that he happens to be a PC, not an
>NPC: no relationships to family or to anyone else
>beyond his fellow fighters sounds like someone who has
>no more to learn about dropping all relationships in
>favour of the deity.
Since a Humakti Initiate has to Sever his relationship to his kin and I rather doubt that Humakt encourages much contact with them - certainly not a strong Relationship - family are unlikely to be an issue for many Humakti seeking to be Devotees
> I don't know what test would be
>demanded of him, but it wouldn't be that. So whether
>his fellow fighters are PCs or not, and whether one of
>them has conveniently just done something demanding
>their death or not, is irrelevant.
>
>> I'm relying on KoS plus what I remember from a web
>> writeup or two.
>>
>> I would have expected the Household to be almost
>> entirely Devotees.
>> Salinarg's children, however, may well have been
>> Disciples -
>> certainly they went beyond the usual level of
>> Devotion.
>
>May well have been. But it depends on what you regard
>as usual for Devotees, doesn't it?
>
>Want to remind us just what they *did* do, for the
>benefit of those without KoS, so we can see just how
>things *can* be scaled up for that sort of level?
"At Sartar's Temple they [Salinargg's children] invoked the aid of Humakt to gain heroic powers in trade for terrible geas and taboos. Others inspired by the moving ceremony did likewise and they formed the Household of Death"
Compare with Storm Tribe "Devotees must take at least one gift and one geas" A Disciple "...must have at least three gifts"
And just to show just how unusual this is, the son Harsaltar was eight. Too young to even be initiated in "normal" Heortling society.
Two years later, when the Lunar Empire attacked the ten-year old Harsalter "met the [Red] emperor in single combat and gave him a fatal wound" but the Emperor "forced the boy to break a geas which killed him". Later sources say that the Emperor of the time (the martial Mask Ignifer) survived but suffered serious wounds (ILH-1 confirms that Ignifer survived). A ten-year old nearly beating the Red Emperor is somewhat remarkable even if the Red Emperor has a rather poor record in personal combat (for a demigod).
>
>> >OTOH, read ST p 97, and you'll see some sample
>> >Disciples of Humakt. "wiped out ten villages..."
>> >"killed everyone in three towns..." they're not
>> nice
>> >people!
>>
>> The first actually had a good reason - stopping a
>> plague.
>
>Well, of course he had a good reason. He's Humakti,
>not Gargathi. No-one's ever suggested he'd kill
>*without* a good reason, have they?
Well I wouldn't suggest that he'd kill without a reason that seemed good to HIM, but since one of the other two randomly killed women and children and the last killed everyone in three towns for being afraid of him it isn't always going to be a reason that can be appreciated by non-Humakti.
-- -- "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.
Powered by hypermail