>Consensus: A Humakti (or other death cultist) should not
>be able to sire any offspring - haven given up fertility
>as part of their death cult inititation.
Not me consensing, not by a long shot.
I never really accepted that all Humakti sever their clan or family ties. Not even those high in the Rune Level hierarchy. And I am seconded by old, but thanks to Wyrm's Footprints somewhat in-print stuff: Erril Silksword, Sword-priestess of the Temple of the Wooden Sword, gave birth to her (invisible) daughter by Alebard the priest of Humakt (nowadays (RQ3) a Sword-mage, aka acolyte, I'd suppose) during the Zorak Zorani assault on the Sazdorf temple.
IMG most Humakti around Dragon Pass follow the god of war, not the god of death. They are part of the mercenary regiments which live on the tensions in Dragon Pass, and the need to protect trade and traders. Quite a lot are organized in centuries, Kethaelan style, following a mercenary captain for a term of 10 or 20 years. This leaves them age 30 or 40 at most when they end their career (if they are competent, about 2/3 will reach this alive), and settle down either as landowners (employing franklin or thrall farmers with the know-how) or citizens (small traders, crafters, scribes, financers, or whatever), get a family, and be respectable new members of their chosen society. While these types recruit as much from the barbarian farmers as from the urban Kethaelans, I'd count them as members of the urban Kethaelan culture after 2 years of service. (Yes, in this way the barbarian ones sever themselves from their clan.) Since we lack any official Sartar/Tarsh scenarios beyond Apple Lane and Snake Pipe Hollow, they never made any appearance in the scenarios, but they are there. Sometimes they go to Civilized Prax (AKA RoC valley), where they appear in OOP as well as IP sources. Let's assume that there are about 15,000 of these guys (and dolls) touring Dragon Pass and northern and eastern Kethaela, plus Prax. They form mobile companies, sometimes less mobile when establishing a permanent HQ and hiring hall in a city. If your PC is one of these, he has time requirements similar to a priest's, though. Not necessarily a bad thing, if you don't play week by week but jump a season or two between sessions.
Next in numerical strength are the housecarls of the barbarian chieftains and kings. I assume that for 20 farming core families a clan or tribe can sustain one housecarl (and his family/servants), and some chiefs take in Storm Bulls or other militant cultists as well (Harvar Ironfist even had Gagarthi, yet less scrupulous chiefs might employ Uraini). Chieftains who surpass this ratio will be forced to go on lucrative raiding, instead of just political raiding.
Assuming that this applies to about 90% of the Sartarite populace, about 50% of the Tarshite and Heortland populace, and occurs in the North March of Esrolia as well, we have about a million rural Orlanthi in the region who entertain housecarls. Divide by 100 (20 core families of 5 people), and you get about 10,000 oath-worn warriors at chieftains courts in the entire region, probably "Orlanthi-all" 85% of them Humakti. These are the types as found in the Lismelder tribe (somewhat in excess of the usual numbers, but economically sound close to Delecti's zombies).
I suppose that the Lismelder living on the marsh edge (and the ducks as well) have quite a lot of Humakti "farmers", i.e. stead-holders who maintain thralls or cottars to do the fertility stuff (except impregnating their wives), David Hall's Greydog ideas and material nonewithstanding.
Then there are the infamous Humakti duelists, like Jaxarte's big brother. They make a living out of bets on their duelling as well as side occupations: bounty-hunting for Clint Eastwood types, sword teachers for three-musketeer types, or just bodyguard mercenary duty, as examples. There aren't that many of these, but they get much publicity. Maybe 1000 all over Kethaela and Dragon Pass, including Onslaught and probably quite a few PCs. Only a fraction of these will be avatars of death, quite a lot of these latter as vampire hunters or similar, others might be jolly people as long as their sword stays sheathed. Few of these will have acknowledged children, simply because of their lifestyle.
Totalled for the population of the entire region (including half of Esrolia), these less than 30,000 Humakti make up maybe 1.5% of the populace. Sound reasonable?
IMO maybe 15% of these cannot sire any children for magical reasons, most of these probably tied to geasa. The reverse of an Orlanthi-all...
>Exceptions occur though, but these are of mythical proportions.
Doubt it. While a society can deal with a significant portion of their populace voluntarily leaving the cycles of reproduction (like medieval monastery dwellers), these rarely are the warriors. Even less likely in any Theyalan culture, which might explain why Yanafal Tarnils was so successful replacing the sterner, Carmanian-influenced Humakt in the Pelorian Orlanthi provincial kingdoms. His association with Deezola in the Seven Mothers gave him all the fertility links his (barbarian) worshippers might want.
Oops, another can of worms: the two cults of Yanafal Tarnils in the southern parts of the Lunar Empire.
I agree that within the standing Lunar Army Yanafal is an officers cult, little worshipped by the grunts except through their regimental spirits who pay allegiance (read "Associate deities" in gamespeak). However, in the Lunarized barbarian populace, Yanafal of the 7 Mothers has replaced some of the martial aspects of Orlanthi in the provincial kingdoms. I think of backwoods Lunar Tarsh, Holay, northern ("civilized", if any of it can be called thus) Aggar, southern ("barbarian") Sylila, and Lakrene.
(BTW: one of the reasons there are so many Tarshite officers in the Lunar Army might come from a Pelorian lowland misconception that the hill-people breed officers like flies...)
>This implies that a child resulting from any mythical union
>with a Humakti will *by definition* be a child of Humakt.
>If the child later decides to seek out its father, it will
>be seeking out Humakt.
Yes to this. Any Humakti-sired child of a ceremonial coitus will gravitate to the cult of Humakt, and likely become one of the officers in the mercenaries or else one of the individualists. How strong these offspring will stress the avatar of death aspect should vary.
IMO Uleria ought to get the mythical partnership in quite a lot of the rites and myths we might have to write up.
>There's a story to be told, I suppose.
Yes.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #250
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