Re: Re: Warfare and Mortality

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 15:59:09 +0300 (EET DST)


On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 janjero_at_... wrote:

> I think that a similar thesis is also in Desmond Morris' Books.
> Killing with a sword or mace is a gruesome act that few humans learnt
> to use (else we would not have needed firearms to improve our cold-
> blood killing).

And even firearms don't help that much. In Vietnam, for instance (I hope this ins't a tabu subject) most american soldiers just poppped up and emptied their M-16:s on full auto in the general direction of the enemy, and then went back to cover to reload/change clip.

_Aiming_ a rifle at another human and knowingly shooting to kill is a very disturbing and a surprisingly difficult act, it seems. Snipers are very effective, but they are selected by psychological tests to be the sort of persons that can do this. It should come as no surprise, that a typical sniper personality is rather antisocial, and can easily develop into a problem case for society (whether or not actually employed or trained as a sniper).

So yes, I think the orlanthi love swords and swordfighting (the weapon of Orlanth, afterall), but they aren't that quick to kill on purpouse.

The Humakti, of course are differnt in this, but they definitely have that "natural killer" personality. Frightening really. I seem to recall that about 2% of the soldiers in a modern army do over one third of the actual killing.

> Are, then Mostali more cynical than humans? I would guess "yes, for
> this one and other reasons".
>
> Gian

I think the Iron mostali have no qualm about killing, and indeed aim their blows to kill and not to wound. (A problem in HW parhaps. They definitely aren't berserkers, so bidding very high isn't quite right. Parhaps the 15AP bid for grevious wounds would be about right.)

        -Adept

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