I had written:
>>"Yanafal was like Humakt save that he was resurrectable but has one=
- -use
>>of sever spirit."
>Yanafal Tarnils had/has one other huge difference from Humakt - he h=
as
>"kin". YT is (or seems to me, at least) quite supportive, heck - ne=
arly
>altruistic, to the rest of the Seven Mothers. He is part of a team,=
not
>the ultimate loner. YT can be resurrected because he serves the Red
>Goddess, with all her impressive regenerative/life acquiring history=
.
>Humakt serves no one, and has no real friends.
Ok. Yanafal Tarnils was like Humakt save in two ways: He was resurrectable
but has one-use of sever spirit. AND he has "kin". AND a fanatical
dedication to the Red Mo...Oh bugger it! Yanafal was like Humakt save in
THREE ways etc...
>> Seriously, what I was arguing was that the resurrectable
>>Humakti could still get the re-usable sever spirit but that he will
have
>>to give up Something Else (like no healing of wounds whatsoever or
>>something like that).
>To me, Humakt owns Death, and that's that. Humakti don't resurrect.
>Murharzarm didn't return from Hell with Yelm because he was slain by
Death
>itself. End of story. A resurrecting Humakti would negate the only
>thing Humakt really stands for.
I won't quibble about Humakt's ownership of Death (If I do, I will end up
in deeper shit and be forced to wimp out by saying that if Humakt doesn't
owe death then another God of the same name does). But, Humakt is an
Archetype. He is Death made Flesh (or whatever substance Godly beings are
made of). That doesn't necessarily mean to use his power, one has to be
like him as much as possible. One compromises between the Archetype and
the Mundane World. After all it can be argued that being a devout Humakti,
it would seem that one should be against the concept of healing since it
prolongs life; yet the amount of humakti who voluntarily (without geases)
refuse healing on these grounds is minuscule. The majority of Humakti being
equivocators, rationalise this to such an extent that the vile spirit magic
'heal' spell is taught by the cult hierarchy in open mockery of Humakt's
ideals. Given this, it should be possible for Ralian Humathi to explain
away the resurrection. Something like 'The death of Many outweighs the
death of One' or something similarly crass.
As for Murharzarm, I notice that Lords of Terror (Yes, I have it now!
Happy Happy Joy Joy!) explicitly names him as Yelm Imperator. Now since
Khorzanelm the Magnificent receives the Cult of Yelm Imperator at the Sun
Stop, presumably Murharzarm is released from the Underworld then. BTW,
Yelm was killed with the sword Death. Don't tell me you _believe_ what
Plentonius wrote?
Brian Tickler:
==============
>Both being Illuminated and/or being a member of Yanafal Tarnils have
a
>built-in disadvantage: lots of people don't like you.
But then if you run an Orlanthi or Sartarite adventurer, you have a
problem in that even more influential people don't like you, to wit: The
Authorities. Practically the only cult which most people are friendly to is
Uleria and even then you have problems with Trolls and Chaos (well not all
chaos - the Broos will love you).
>A Humakti adventurer, on the other hand, is hated only by people who
>belong to cults who hate pretty much everyone.
Depends what sort of Humakti you are. If you are Sartarite, the
authorities hate your guts because you a probable Storm Symp. Your status
is only marginally better than that of an actual Orlanthi since you're not
a storm worshipper. If you're Carmanian, then the locals see you as a
Lunar and the Lunars don't. Your fellow Carmanians may be friendly
provided they're not in a black mood. If you're Pentish, then virtually
every race under the Sun will curse you for living save for the Pentan
Horse nomads (AND only if they too are storm followers). An adventurer
doesn't choose a cult to be well liked, one chooses a cult so that
interesting times can be had.
>Humakt has always been, in my experience, far and away the most popu
lar
>cult for players. I can't recall a campaign I have ever run or play=
ed
>in that did not have a Humakti character at some point.
Although Humakt was a popular cult in RQII, I had heard this was larg=
ely
due to free sword training to initiates which is far more useful than=
Sever
Spirit etc. If you take this out, Humakt becomes a minor cult of fan=
atics
roughly with the same amount of social status as Storm Bull.
>I can't speak for
>RQ3, but it seems to me that, if anything, limiting the use of Shiel=
d to
>specific cults and fixing Truesword have only increased the Humakt c=
ult's
>role as the most powerful combat cult for non-Trolls. As such, it d=
raws
>players who are predisposed towards game-dominating behaviour...=
Virtually every war cult under the Sun has Shield. It's just that RQ=
III
took it away from Cults who didn't need it like Lhankor Mhy, Issaries=
etc.
True Weapon although a decent spell isn't the Be-all end-all in weapo=
ns
magic. Lodril teaches Firespear which is a stackable Fireblade, 3 po=
ints
and Death Lords become chunks of cooked meat on your spear-cum-shish-=
Kebab)
and he gets shield from Yelm and is resurrectable. Throw in the fact=
that
you get to summon/control salamanders and the cult becomes a virtual =
refuge
for pyromaniacs everywhere.
>It is not fair to make your Stormbull, Orlanth, Yelmalio, etc. playe=
rs
>into second-class citizens. If you were to implement this and immed=
iately
>start a brand-new campaign, I wonder how many of your players would =
chose
>to play Humaktis?
Given that Stormbull, Orlanth and Yelmalio are worshipped in and arou=
nd the
areas controlled by the Lunar Empire, they are second class citizens =
IMO.
Orlanth outside the Lunar Sphere of Influence does not fare well eith=
er.
In Fronela and Ralios, his worshippers are confined to the Hinterland=
s
while the worshippers of Arkat and the Invisible God have all the Bes=
t
farmlands.
However your beef was with making Humakt resurrectable. I am not say=
ing
that in Ralios, Humakt shall be resurrectable with all other things b=
eing
equal. I am saying that perhaps in Ralios, Humakti who participate i=
n the
local rites can be resurrectable. However they pay a price for this.=
This
would be something like: Their sever spirit is harder to get, they g=
et no
free sword training (an RQII'ism), the strength of their geases is do=
ubled,
the value of their gifts is diminished etc. Immigrant Humakti from o=
ther
areas would prefer to keep their own rites rather than go through the=
indigenous ones.
>To my way of thinking, calling a Yanafal Tarnils cultist a "traitoro=
us
>Humakti" is similar (though not on the same order of magnitude) to, =
say,
>calling a Zorak Zoran cultist a "traitorous Yelmalio" or a Krarsht =
>cultist a "traitorous Stormbull".... I've always been of the opini=
on
>that Chaosium did everyone a disservice by presenting Yanafal Tarnil=
s as
>"Humakt without a re-usable Sever Spirit".
Although the consensus is that Yanafal is more than just a renegade H=
umakti
who's resurrectable, the fact remains that Yanafal was a former Humak=
ti
whereas Zorak Zoran was never a Yelmalion nor Krarsht a Uroxi. It is=
a
simple truism of 'Yanafal Tarnils is a Traitorous' that is readily
comprehended by most barbarians which gives them an excuse to hate th=
em
'dirty lunar renegades'. Whether a particular Yanafal Tarnils cultis=
t has
ever been a member of Humakt is simply irrelevant in barbarian eyes. =
If the barbarians were truly honest with themselves about the good th=
ings
in life (Peace, Plenty Happiness, the usual stuff) then they would si=
mply
beat their swords into ploughshares and enjoy the Benevolent Light of=
the
Red Moon. But due to the disproportionably large amount of immature =
lager
louts within the simple culture, they persist in indulging antisocial=
activities redolent of their socially maladjusted deities. This is d=
irectly
attributable to the crude methods of child rearing they have; for ins=
tance,
a male orlanthi cannot leave the boys cult of Voriof without demonstr=
ating
that they know what it takes to be an adult male upon an ewe! The en=
d
result of these sad practices necessitates firm but fair community po=
licing
initiatives with the express aim of neutralizing troublemakers so tha=
t they
will cease to be a disruptive influence upon the population at large.=
Hail all, the Reaching Moon in her Magnificent Glory!
Powered by hypermail