He justified this by saying that most people regard Humakti as being mad, evil killers anyway.
And this is where I have to disagree. (Old time readers may care to skip the following restatement of my Interventionist position in the Great How Active Are The Gods Debate.)
I feel that although the reality of the gods is sustained by the belief of the
followers of the gods, their reality isn't totally decided by what is believed
about them. This is Glorantha, not WW's World of Darkness and reality isn't
subjective. Humakt has his own personality not that assigned to him by people
(and Martin was quoting the popular prejudice, not what Humakti believe about
themselves and their god) and when a follower of his is not following the way
of the god he has the power and the will to cut that person off. If not, no
Humakti would ever feel his sword shatter in his hand.
And though Humakt is Death, he is Death-for-a-purpose. He is Death-in-the- service-of-Life. All the War gods of Glorantha exist to serve the social group they draw their followers from and not just for the glory of ending life. They would not be tolerated otherwise. And if Humakt did not have his overweening sense of Honour he could not be part of the Orlanthi social matrix. (Oh, yes he is! A detached and rather strange part but part nonetheless.)
I always have difficulty believing in long-lasting, sucessful Evil. (Yes, I know how naive that is.) In a world like Glorantha where there are no huge anonymous crowds to hide in I find it even harder to believe. I don't think that Onslaught would last as long as he is depicted as doing although I understand how much fun he would be as an NPC.
Actor and Genius.
AKA Theophilus, Prince-Archbishop of the Far Isles
(Arms: Purpure, an open book proper, without clasps. On the dexter page the
Greek letter Alpha or. On the sinister page the letter Omega of the same.
Motto: nulla spes sit in resistendo.)
Ask me about the Far Isles Medieval Society:
Better living through pan-medieval anachronisms.
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