>I have this character in mind, her husband is killed by some other clan and
>weregeld is paid in retribution. But she doesn't want it. I know she
>doesn't have to accept it but what she really wants is to kill the >offending clan entirely. --to exact revenge to the highest power, and not >just through challenge and personal combat, but by every subterfuge she can >muster. No amount of wealth will replace her life, and so she wants those >responsible to get the same treatment. Now without hiding her motives >behind the facade of a malign earth power, or by embracing chaotic forces, >who does she get spiritual guidance from. I mean, she's not looking for >training and an excuse to wipe out her enemies, this is her personal >conflict. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone play with >Orlanth/Eurmal being the sort of dark cultural/ anti-hero?
Assuming your wergild rules are similar to the old Icelandic ones (the only ones I'm comfortable discussing), then her _legal_ choices are: take the money and forget the bloodfeud, or refuse the money and carry on bloodfeud against those who killed her husband, and _only_ them. Killing the entire other clan cannot be legally justified, unless they _all_ took part in the killing.
Her clan may decide the other clan should be punished in extremis, but that becomes outright clan warfare, not private vengeance. If her clan is not undertaking the vengeance, as you've implied, then they would probably be opposed to her annihilating the other clan. This, because she could not kill them all at once, and after the first few killings, the other clan would start open warfare on its own. Most clans do not like being dragged into someone's private vendettas without being asked.
Because her desire is to wipe out the rival clan, and not just kill the few who actually killed her husband, we must treat her as psychotic. And there is really no place in a normal society for psychotics, still less for a cult to offer them guidance. She would have to do what RW psychotics do - twist her own beliefs and myths until she found a rationalization for what she wanted to do.
In a really extreme case (say one chance in 10,000, or a million), she might find a psychotic priest to offer her guidance. But the normal priests whom she is likely to find in her clan will try to guide her into normal behavior. The only Orlanthi pantheon source for what she wants _might_ be Eurmal Murderous. And I would only expect to find that aspect of Eurmal worshipped in a large city, where there might be a market for assassins. She would probably not even know of such an aspect of Eurmal.
If I was the GM, I would allow her to go psycho and try to wipe out the other clan. (Of course, I like my players to do stupid things with their characters - it saves me a lot of effort thinking up plots.) But I would also expect her own clansmen to try to stop her, with extreme prejudice if necessary.
Ed Tonry
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #285
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