Orlanthi honor

From: Peter Maranci <pmaranci_at_sunspot.tiac.net>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 18:27:07 -0400 (EDT)

    My thanks to the many who've given their thoughts on the subject of Orlanthi honor.

    But Humakt severed his connection to Orlanth, precisely *because* he felt that Orlanth had been dishonorable. Do Orlanthi truly consider Humakt to be a part of their pantheon? They're friendly cults, I have no doubt. But I wonder if standards of honor cross over that line.

    Does an ambush count as secret murder? Some of the NPC ambushers told stories and songs about the deed, but increased the number of Lunar foes from one (in the first instance) to ten. Made a better story that way. Incidentally, the ambush was completely unauthorized by the clan elders. They weren't asked or informed about it.

    Unfortunately Nick's first post didn't make it to me. But I thought that Initiates weren't required to say the staves. They could choose to, obviously (as in "The Smell of a Rat" in the RQ Companion), but only Wind Lords and Priests *must* say them. That must make ambush difficult...

    Has anyone explained how Orlanthi could survive under Lunar occupation when they're required to challenge Lunars in a way that makes their practice of a banned religion obvious? What would stop the Lunars from carting an obvious krajalki around in a cage through every Orlanthi village to flush out all the leaders? I know -- Storm Bull worshippers would come at a run... :-)

> Further Nick comment:
> >(I gave up DnD when I discovered what "genocide" meant).

    According to *that* system Hitler would have had more hit points than anyone else in the universe. :-)

> ...hate the Lunar "teacher" even more, for he will try to kill your
> entire society.

    The Lunars had already tried the teaching way in the village. The results were catastrophic: when a boy was brought back to life by Lunar magic his father killed him. A nice touch.

    I never considered them to be particularly honorable, until I was finally forced to play one. But my characterization may be questionable. Thus this thread.

> If that's so, I'd hope Pete would have mentioned it...

    Apart from the incident above and the fact that the region has been conquered, the village hasn't suffered much at the hands of the Lunars. Quite the reverse, in fact. They got trolls to slaughter many of the occupying Lunar teachers, who then left the area. The PCs murdered a Lunar messenger's horse (unintentionally -- a very funny event) and made the best of it by stealing his secret message.

> ...the lack of any mention of such reprisals is what makes me wonder
> just how oppressed these particular Orlanthi really are.

    Some of the players may read this list, so the consequences of their actions (if any) will have to wait until they come up in play...

> ...Pete Maranci (presumably as referee) felt uncomfortable about the
> way his Orlanthi players were behaving...

    It's a round-robin game in which everyone takes turns GMing, which complicates things. My PC was unwillingly involved with the first raid. I found it disturbing. I GMed the second ambush, and will GM the following session as well. Given that it's a shared world, I need to make sure that I'm being reasonable.

                                                                -->Pete

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