On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 9:47 PM, valkoharja <rintasaa_at_sOoLsLKgA9CF_fe8t-jb_PxLRbQWAMnDDeap0at5RnKjYp6dkMhRam4FsKQFXnde-QKnao8M-Q5Nu4DnPEk.yahoo.invalid> wrote:
> wrote:
> >
> > for a creature like this the issue at hand is not aout their overall,
> > general characteristics.
> > There isn't any ghoul kingdom etc; just pockets of strange, warped beings
> > over there, etc.
> > each group is local, different.
> > have their own name, etc.
>
> Thanks.
>
You are welcome. I've not thought directly about these things, and it's fun.
>
> Ghouls remind me of vampieres, in the way of an imperfect analogue. I
> suppose they are a symptom of chaos on Glorantha. In theory hunger (and
> undead) could also be linked to darkness/hell.
>
Myself, I don't have a clue where the undead connection came from. Most ghouls I am familiar with in any context are NOT undead. They just eat the dead. I do no beleive that in Glorantha eating the dead makes one into an undead. They are alive.
> People breaking the taboos of Heortling society (murder of relatives,
> incest...) tend to cause chaos.
Not just Heortling, but any society
Is the cannibalism taboo a more universal one, that causes (chaotic)
> breakdown of the border between dead and alive.
>
Oh no.
First, all the nonhuman eat their own.
ALSO NOTE that the cannibalism here is not ritual cannibalism to obtain a
result (magical/evil, or ancestral) --the cannibal cult is one tiny
(nonspecific) example of people who eat the dead ritually. These ghouls have
to be doing it because they like it, prefer it, etc. I am not sure of what
this difference of intention, habit or method that mutates them.
It doesn't change the relationship of dead and alive.
And as I said, I can't conceive of why or how cannibalism would turn one
undead. So, IMG, it is not.
> I'm still curious whether a magician could seek to become a ghoul as a way
> to avoid natural death.
No. IMG, cannibalism does NOT result in immortality.
> As long as you have access to flesh, you can "live" on, I suspect. How much
> is it still you? Do you become a mindless zombie?
>
--
Greg Stafford
Game Designer
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