Re: Mercenary Totems and other Humakti matters

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_gsidanet.danet.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 97 14:50:16 EST

> From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com>
> Subject: Mercenary Totems
>
> David Weihe wrote:
> > My take was always that some wolf tribes converted to Humakt in the
> > earliest days, like the Ralian Cattle tribes converted to Orlanth.
> > The personalities of a wolf pack and a mercenary unit are too similar
> > to avoid the association.
>
> I like it! Presumably this also happened to some tribes of Wild Goose
> Hsunchen? :-)

But of course! Why do you think that Ducks got to join Humakt at full charisma value in RQ2?
(I would never have thought of it, though, without your suggestion :-)

> Subject: Re: Yanafal Tarnils, Law Rune
> Stephen Martin
> ==============
> > As a Carmanian, I don't think Yanafal Ta'arnils had ever _heard_ of the
> > Humakt cult when he helped to create the Red Goddess. He probably
> > worshiped the Carmanian War God (Carmanos?), which has some similarities
> > to the Humakt cult. But from what little I remember about Carmanos, I
> > think it likely the War Cult of Carmania allowed resurrection. For the
> > right people. I could be wrong.

Of course he _heard_ of Humakt. If nothing else *someone* among his neighbors would have hired some as the equivalent of a Varangian Guard. Plus, I believe, the original 10 Thousand came from an area that was heavily influenced by Approved non-Humakti Role Model Talor the Laughing Warrior, who would have attracted Humakt turned-off by Arkat becoming a ZZ before the Final Assault on the "Bright" Empire. They would have kept their faith, while publically becoming Warrior Caste, especially if the Pre-Carmanian Church had the same format as the Carmanian does now (ie, allowing worship of gods under the Invisible God, aka Idovanus).

Plus, there would be EWF Humakti in mercenary regiments that were stationed in the area, then were cut off by the DH resurgence, that would have settled down in what would seem a friendly area (ie, would hire them).

I believe you could find Humakti anywhere that you find frequent wars; a cult that severs it kinship ties isn't going to mind leaving the original society behind if business is better somewhere else (Our Business is Killing, and Business is Good)(also see the Black Company saga, by Glen Cook).

Granted, YT might not have called him "Humakt", but the Name is not the Thing, necessarily, even on Glorantha, or there would be only one name for Shargash/Tolat.

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