> I still contend that if Humakti cut themselves off from kith and kin,
> which is the root of Orlanthi society, they are technically outlaws.
Two things, here. First is that past discussion here has shown this to be a big "if". I think the net.consensus is probably that some (but not all) Humakti cut themselves off in a formal/legal sense, possibly with rituals like our Lismelder one (the funeral rite that 'celebrates' your admission to Sword status and departure from the clan).
Second is that people with no kith or kin in an Orlanthi society are not "outlaws" but foreigners. Unless you're now going to tell me that traders who pass through tribal lands in which they have neither kith nor kin are *also* outlaws. Hell, maybe healers are, too! It's stretching a point to claim that anyone whose tribal status is "different" is an outlaw. I'd imagine KoS p.67 is a fairly standard definition of Humakti status:
> Humakt was a god, and he did not have any misunderstanding about
> [Death]. He used it first to sever his ties from his kin, and so
> he absolved his king for the heinous deeds which he, the God of
> Death, would do after that. Orlanth was so moved that he has always
> respected Humakt for his honor and fierce code, and gives him a
> place on the Ring even though he is a foreigner.
"Outlaw" and "Foreigner" status are defined technically on p.244f of KoS. They are not said to be equivalent, though both are "Outsiders". If foreigners were under the tribal King's (or perhaps the High King's) protection, then it would be possible for a foreigner to be an outlaw as well. (Just as it'd be possible to be a chaotic stranger, etc.).
Good point re: Storm Bulls also kin-severing. I think probably we can all agree that this ritual can be done by lots of different types of people, but that (unless it's local custom/requirement/tradition among a given Tribe's Humakti) it isn't necessary for everyone to do it. (A Carmanian note: Syranthir Forefront used an iron sword to cut himself off from his kin when the God Learners were using his children's ghosts to target him for attacks on the long march east).
> Does anyone know of a source, or have opinions about, the intriguingly
> titled but lamentably passed over Cannibal Cult in RoC.
Yep: there's a full cult write-up by Sandy Petersen and Greg Stafford in issue #9 of Tales of the Reaching Moon magazine.
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