"Most people of Glorantha know only these things about the
morokanth; they are one of the five great tribes of Prax , and
they alone herd and eat men there. There is more to the story
than that"
...
"Morokanth keep intelligent human slaves in addition to their
herd-men. Slavery is common practise in Prax...Humans keep
slaves and eat beasts, including herd-men, but do not regard
this paradox."
...
"Morokanth have a worse reputation than they deserve outside of
Prax. Outlanders believe morokanth are viscious man eaters.
They frighten naughty children with threats of morokanth."
This led me to my current view. Herd-men are not widely known outside Prax, so Morokanth are generally assumed by most people to herd and eat normal people. Praxians know better, but they aren't letting on, Why should they help a rival tribe, particularly known cheats like the morokanth (Directed trait Suspicious vs Morokanth?).
Alter Creature. This is not a great worry for non-praxians, who probably don't know of it's existance (after all, they don't know of herd-men). They already believe they are going to enslaved, herded and eaten as it is. Praxians do fear it more, and probably more so from Morokanth than from other tribes, but we are told it is used
"...to humiliate enemies by turning them into beasts, to punish
criminals guilty of "bestial" crimes, so that a particularly
desirable person can become breeding stock for the herds, as an
encouragement to hurry back with the ransom (or else...) or to
"impersonate" someone [by binding a spirit into a newley made
herd-man]"
As someone (Martin Crim, I think) pointed out, Alter Creature is only supposed to apply to beings covered by the Covenant of Waha, although the Scouting The Land scenario in Borderlands is ambivalent on this point. It states explicitly that Trollkin and Baboons are not affected as they are outside the covenant, but it is implicit that Agimori *are* affected. The scenario is by Greg (& Steve Perrin) so by the law of "Gregging" must have some validity. In order to make it work it is necessary to find some way of making Agimori covered by the Covenant in a way that Baboons aren't. Both are listed in the ten independants in Nomad Gods, where we are told the Men-and-a-half "... claim to be the pure blooded descendants of Man and Woman, the rune ancestors of all the human races of Glorantha". This disagrees with later thinking which has them created by Lodril and Eurmal after the creation of other races, but does show that, at least for a while, they were considered as "Men". I don't know if anyone has any better ideas (or is it a Lore Auction question for Convulsion?)
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Ellis EMail tim_at_timellis.demon.co.uk || A foolish consistancy is the hobgoblin of little minds - R.W. Emerson |
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