> >
> Um, Bruce... none of the folks listed are people I'd like to have as
> my Clan or Tribal Champion.
>
> How about people who are called by the god. Who come to Humakt
> willingly, rather than being shoved through defects of character?
Good point. Remember though that for those with defects who do surrender to Humakt, he offers a kind of healing, an Acceptance, an inner peace. Some humakti learn to let go, to accept their mortality. They stop reliving their traumas and start valuing the time that they have, and try to live according to Truth and Honour. (I wrote a humakti novella about this struggle once, and I'm finally getting to ready to put it online.)
Clan or tribal champions tend to be older, experienced men and women: I'd imagine that humakti who *don't* find the peace of their god tend to die fairly quickly through violence, pathology, or stupidity. (I think our group's record is a player losing 3 humakti in one sunday session; though after the second death he kept the stats and just changed the character name (T'was RQ lite). It wasn't a particularly OTT session, nor was it a broo bash, nor did I expect violence - it happened to be a Yelmie high society wedding feast that got out of hand. Once our clan chief went down it was on for one and all: and *we* were trying to *stop* the riot! Of course, the proximity of the Gori ceremony next door didn't help much. And then some fool summoned a salamander *inside* the main hall...
But I'm rambling. Shoot me if I do it again. :)
An initiate taken in by a Humakti mercenary regiment with a long history and a proud tradition will probably have a better chance of finding this healing than a backwoods boy who has a single half-healed Sword to learn from.
One of the nice things about humakti is precisely that players have to struggle with this meaning/motivation thing, and the results range from berserky slicers-and-dicers through to truly noble philosopher-saints. Same for humakti themselves I'd guess.
I've written before about the tensions in playing humakti: they're such kool rpg characters that there's a constant pressure to downplay or ignore their quite severe social shortcomings and disadvantages.
In Heortling society, humakti are *definitely* way on the outer. Fear them. But yes, the god will call some quite extraordinary men and women, as well as those who have been driven half-mad by his touch. The first time you encounter someone who is a humakt, you must be prepared for *anything*. (Which BTW, is another good reason to fear them :)).
A tired John
nysalor_at_... John Hughes
... a flying arrow, a crashing wave, night old ice,
a coiled snake, a bride's bed talk, a broken sword, the play of bears, a king's son.
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