>>>Two things - Gark isn't worshipped in Genertela so the scope for >>>seduction of foolish westerners is pretty close to zero.
Says who? The sources say his priests travel the world and they call him by many names, portraying him in whatever form is most pleasing to potential worshippers. I should think westerners are particularly good targets thanks to the feudal system and the opressiveness of the churches.
>
> More importantly is the assumption that he's chaotic so must
> have nefarious motives. Cults can be objectively bad even if
> they have motivations which are justifiably good. For example
> Pocharngo the Mutator conveys the gift of freedom from the
> constricting confines of shape but to everybody else he's a cosmic
> cancer.
This gift can also end up killing you. I think that Gark survives as a cult by fooling people into believing that he offers spiritual peace (which he does! if you dont mind being dead!), and instead he enslaves their body and soul. This is manifestly nefarious, just like Cacodemon, etc.. Chaos generally acts counter to the best interests of gloranthans, but not always.
>
> If Gark is the God of Eternal Peace through Zombieness then
> for all extenys and purposes, he should really believe that Eternal
> Peace can only be achieved by making everybody a Zombie.
I think people put too much stock in the "eternal peace" part, and not enough in the Zombie part, which is the most important since it has a concrete magical manifestation and a runic association, "eternal peace" has neither, its a cover, PR for the cult.
The Gark priest wants to enslave as many people into zombies, he has no interest in their spiritual peace. He does believe that the peace Gark brings is better than the life they had before, but I think we both know that he is twisting things a bit here. Gark rewards the priest that brings him the most slaves. The god is in the business of zombie making, not self help.
> >That is not to say that all zombie making is chaotic, but there is
a
> >chaotic version of this magical power and Gark is the patron of
this.
>
> Except that Thanatar and Vivamort do not have anything to do
> with Gark when they make Zombies - I'm not even sure that
> their zombies are even chaotic.
>
> --Peter Metcalfe
The sources say: Chaos pantheon - chaos god of eternal peace, eternal life, and zombies
This would imply that Gark is THE chaos source of zombie making, and so all chaotic zombie making borrow from his power. Just like Primal Chaos is the source of all Chaos Features. But Gark is a minor god, his power is relatively minor in the world, but ubiquitous.
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