IMO Humakti are mercenaries, not Thuggee. Their code-of-honor mindset makes them members of a warrior nobility, be it samurai, basic chivalry, or just the barbarian warrior we all know and love, from "Indogermanic culture" (i.e. the axe/sword wielding bugger who conquered the farming types to make them work for him - think Goliath, rather than David).
>I think that people don't think of the absolutist mindset of these warriors
>enough.
I think that most Humakti don't. Most Humakti remain people. Only those who don't become obsessed machines, unable to laugh, and obsessed with death. Heck, even the Thuggee remained people some of their time in the usual British India movies.
>They are _not_ just soliders, they aren't even Templars or berserkers -
>they experience for real the power of their deity and they are fearless of that
>which causes fear in us all and _that_ is a hard thing to play and simulate
>correctly IMO.
And it's hard to live - sorry, die - up to, in the world of Glorantha. Meaning that most followers of Humakt don't reach this goal. IMO, of course.
This is what I once called the "junior Rune Lord approach" in the rules context - IMO initiation, even to a non-society-bearing cult like Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, Chalana Arroy, or Humakt, doesn't cancel out the humanity, and certainly doesn't make you a minor avatar at once. While joining a cult costs a person some of their free will (if that is still HeroQuesting-relevant), an initiate will be able to retain most of his former personality (in fact, practically all of it - or he would never have managed to persuade the examiners to accept him in the first place, so whatever deviating traits he may have had will be acceptable to the cult, in a measured way).
So, whenever we play human characters in Glorantha, let's remember they are human, too. Not just little godlets on two legs.
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