Re: Humakti & Fertility

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_gsidanet.danet.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 97 19:53:39 EST


> Please think on this. In the clan-based culture of Orlanth and Ernalda what
> is the point if Humakt can farm and breed like Orlanth/Barntar, and
> Orlanth/Barntar can fight and die as well as Humakt? What really *is* the
> point?

Obviously, Humakti don't farm as well as Orlanthi, if for no other reason than Humakti won't be bothered to pay as much attention to the "unimportant poking at the soil" as farming needs, when they should be practicing their weaponcraft . Some might actually farm, but when possible they will probably do it just like my two cousins who were USAF colonels. Hire real farmers to take care of the fields, plant oddball cash crops in areas where the farmers won't work (Cousin Dale planted furniture trees in the marshy 5%, and made more selling them than he did renting the "usable" land) that don't require close monitoring, and come back once a year to check and collect rents, rather like RQ2 "poor nobles". Also, they will want the rents in usable and portable cash, not cows or cow shares or future cows, or any of the other barters.

Humakti will not be taught how to get along with their neighbors, except in defensive alliances against external threats. They will not be taught how to be a jolly host, a beloved leader, a good husband, or any of the other mythic roles that Orlanth has. When married, they will neglect their children except when they try really hard to avoid it, will leave their wives for battle (see H Hornblower's first marriage, or Urriah the Hittite), and wonder why when they come home their wives arrange their deaths (Agamemmnon of Mykene, or the Welsh version of Lugh). All these Orlanthish things aren't covered by Humakti cult skills, stories, or myths, and so are up to the individual to piece together  on their own, without any chaplain/pastor/RCpriest equivalents. The dual initiates of Humakt and Orlanth will be able to pick up these skills from their Air side, but will still tend to ignore them as they become more Humakt and less Orlanth.

They really have NO role in the small clan and family-based society of the Taming period, except as occasional hired raiders. Most will not want anything that the primitives can offer, until at least after the coming of Sartar and the beginnings of civilization, and will only move into the Pass area to escape outlawry or to take over the unused lands and set themselves up like the Heortlander knights that the Varmandi tried to get away from. The only exception seems to be the ducks, who have seem to have a special role in holding back the Upland Marsh, and were leftovers from the EWF period.


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