Which I rather liked actually with one exception:
>She was a Healer woman - so what? Onslaught had killed them before;
>it was usually cheap, quick and easy. This one had the temerity to
>tell him, Onslaught, that pissing on that stand of narl flowers she
>was gathering fouled their use as healing agents. Of course it
>did!
Wrong. He is a Humakti Sword and would never hurt a healer of Chalana Arroy. He would even leave a Deezola priestess alone, though he's not a big lunar fan. (Ask Jeff Richards about that one, he has an interesting view on it).
You really are missing the point here even though I've tried to explain this at length and even make fun out of the whole issue to lighten it from this sad bitchiness.
>[Lest I be accused of killing off another person's character (not cricket
>in my book), note that although I'm sure the Coders took Onslaught with
>them when they flew back to Boldhome to resurrect Anderida, whether or
>not he eventually made it to the Black Galleys is up to you...]
I don't believe in killing off other peoples character either, which is why I apologised to both Brian and Mike for my boob and I am still sorry for it. However, Onslaught is merely an NPC and a creation I put out. You can do what you like with him and to be honest, I think he'd do rather well in Danfive Xaron.
>Onslaught's Guide to Genertela - Part 1
>
>In the courses of my travels I have encoutered many strange and
>insane places, places where war is a curse and killing is frowned upon.
>Naturally I avoided such lunacy and concentrated on the good
>stuff. Here is are reports from my journal on places I liked:
>
...[deleted: yet more tedious accounts of Mr O killing everything
in his path]...
>
>Sword Onslaught, currently in Pavis
>Next week we'll look at Dagori Inkarth and Prax. Keep those sword
>sharp fun lovers!
>I for one vote Thanks, but No Thanks.
Holy shit! Are you in need of a serious humour transplant or what? Have you ever heard of parody? I've already stated that Onslaught is not actually like that as an NPC, I was merely poking fun at the whole debate, myself included. Unless you realise that when reading something entitiled "Holiday Humakt", which is plainly not serious, I am actually having a dig at all those super-characters and their insane activities then naturally you are going to assume I'm some sort of AD&D throwback teen terror.
>(One of things that attracted me to RQ in the first place, way back then,
>was that even a very powerful character could be slain by that lucky
>arrow, that lucky sword stroke. It heightens the risk, the danger, the
>excitement in any combat, in a way That Other Game(tm) that everyone was
>playing at the time couldn't, and still can't. I realise that Onslaught's
>adventures are somehow meant to be 'amusing', but the character himself seems
>to me to resemble the blandest sterotype of your 25th, 33rd, (99th?) level
>Fighter (Lawful Evil of course) rather than a 'real' Gloranthan, and reading
>about him slaughtering everything in his path is about as interesting as
>listening to a group of velvet-caped tossers recounting how they 'cleaned out
>the complete Halls of the Fire Giants series' with their party of 39th level
>Fighter/Magic User/Half-elven Bards*.)
>*two friends of mine actually had to endure this when they met with
>Avalon Hill's RQ editor at the time (c.1991).
And I for one would feel equally nauseated. I for one have had to endure such sadness but I for one think there is many shades of grey in this issue and you are branding my comments with a rather large sterotyped label without any attempt to see what I'm actually getting at with the Onslaught character.
He didn't just appear like that, he grew. He is an expression of Humakt because there is no one way (IMO) with that God. Perhaps Count Julan is a better man in a social sense but not everyone can be Count Julan. I personally would and have played Humakti with Julans Code but I firmly believe the Humakti/Tarnils Codes are very personal in interpretation. Onslaught is obsessed with Death for he has little else. Imagine for a moment being him.
He has nothing in his life. He has no love, no cares, no people. He cannot go drinking with the men, he cannot know the love of a woman. He has _nothing_ but Death and the giving of it. His name wasn't Onslaught originally, it was Aldarch but over the years he lost all essence of humanity and became a walking weapon, he became his sword and took its name.
Julan would pity him for that loss for I think that many Humakti feel it, at least in part and this is their ultimate sadness. Humakt himself paid a terrible price for his code by foregoing the most important thing in Orlanthi society - his Kin. Onslaught has done the same. Humakt never took a wife or bore sons. Onslaught will never know that joy either. Humakt did without the comradeship of the drinking hall and instead trained to perfection. Onslaught does the same. Humakt was a God but Onslaught was a man. How much harder for the man is it? IMO its devestating. Humans are naturally gregarious and interactive but if you were Onslaught what wold you have? Only despair. How to suppress that despair? You throw yourself into your faith with everything you have and seek endlessly and fruitlessly for the perfection of a God. That is what fanatics are made of.
I have thought long and hard about this and it seems to me to be a little explored area of Glorantha and I wish to explore it. I find your comparisons to AD&D to be both massively unfair and odious in the extreme. If you disagree with my point of view, then please say so, as is your right but don't brand me before you know who I am or what I mean. I would never deliberately do that to someone else and expect others to treat me with the same honour. You insult and degrade me in a public forum on imaginary characters and worlds and have the cheek to talk about honour? Instead of insulting me perhaps you would do me the good grace of _asking me_ what I mean by a particular statement before jumping to conclusions?
Martin Laurie
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #512
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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