John Hughes claims that head-hunters wouldn't raid cattle.
Personally, I can't see why one of these activities should exterminate all the others - head-hunting surely is the more dangerous and in that way more prestigious activity, but at the same time it is less useful for the clan, unlike cattle-raiding. While I agree that stabling puts an upper limit to the amount of cattle that can be brought into the next year, a cattle raid can increase the _quality_ of a clan's herd immensely by bringing a prize bull from an unfriendly clan into one's own breeding.
I don't see many other ways to get exceptional breeding bulls into a clan's herds except by raiding, as tribute (i.e. the consequence of a war, in the end the same procedure), or as a favour from a friendly clan (through marriage, or as a gift in a treaty or for extraordinary service as an ally). Regular cattle-trading might cover meat-animals for the city or useful (but unexceptional) milk cows. There might be fairs or permanent cattle markets at cities (or tribal moots), but IMO the quality of the cattle exchanged there would be not quite top of the list.
The economical usefulness of head-hunting is limited compared to the breeding of cattle, but it might have some political or military consequences which might be useful. Like a sure-fire way to get an enemy clan to attack a superior position, possibly out of a greater tribal contingent...
Bravo to David Millians' Aggarite headhunters! Tell me more about your setting!
>But then aren't so many of the bad things in the world, at
>least as far as Orlanthi are concerned, simply branches of the Storm
>Clan gone awry?
There are sufficient amounts of evil outside of the Storm tribe - predark, the "giants" of the initiation ritual (standing in for gods of other, enemy pantheons),
Stephen Martin:
>I also believe that the chaos entity Than
>originated not as some chaotic entity in the Darkness, but as an Orlanthi
>headhunter who eventually went too far, and became chaotic himself. It is
>a fine line, using a foe's head as a magic weapon, and using it as a
>chaotic magic weapon.
In what way would the non-chaotic version of a foe's head as a magic weapon work? A focus to cast curses or destructive magic on the head's kinsfolk or comrades (like in Moorcock's adaption of Irish legend in Corum), a source of knowledge (like Mimir's head in Norse saga), or just a way to create a very powerful, directed version of Demoralize?
And is there an obscure hero cult to gain this magic?
Cory Davis:
>Just an observation, we have in our game always taken heads of powerful
>(rune level) enemies to remove the possibility of resurrection. I think
>it's happened now about 3 or 4 times, so head taking might not just be a
>cultural affectation but a recognized tactic to permanently remove a
>powerful foe.
>What do you reckon?
Don't get caught. Or do it in a way which makes it clear that you are not Thanatari. (If you're devious and sneaky, perform the LM headsmashing magic on the head you've taken, but that's a very un-Orlanthi and dishonest way to conceal a crime. Useful for societal fringe-cults, like Black Fang, though...)
Jeff Richard
>Let me repeat - I do not believe that head-hunting is traditional amongst
>the Quivini tribes.
Not as a rule among the majority, I agree.
>The barbaric practices of the Dinacoli and the Kerofini are considered
>savage customs by the doughty carls of Quiviniland.
You mean the sissy High Heortling (if I recall your definition correctly -
I might want that for an article in a German RQ-society publication in the
near future) immigrants from the foothills of Heortland, and their
descendants? Probably not. I'm less convinced about the Torkani
(darkness-worshippers...) or the (non-Heortling) Kitori and their
traditional enemies (who might have taken up the enemy customs), or the Pol
Joni nomads
and their closer Sartarite allies (Dundealos? other Swenstown confederacy
tribes?) facing the subhuman (in their opinion?) Praxians. Would Gagarthi
take heads? Storm Bulls?
I am fairly convinced that there are savage Orlanthi clans, or just family groups, between the peaks of the Storm Mountains of Heortland and western Prax, practicing (or having expertise in) very primitive customs. They are a far call from the traditional Orlanthi clans in Sartar and hill-land Heortland, let alone civilized Hendrikiland, or the Sartarite cities. Aggar highlands are another fine place to look for such chaps, but they would be Pelorian Heortlings rather than Manirian, if only due to the Dragonkill separation. Head-taking need not be the domain of Winter Tribe-descended Orlanthi; if I'm correct about Porscriptor the Cannibal, there could well be a Summer-tribe minority tradition surviving in some savage outback.
>This does not rule out the possibility that there are cults or magical
>societies in eastern Dragon Pass that practice head-hunting as a way to
>gain power over their foes (much like the Ralian Orlanthi who use it to
>augment their Demoralize spells) - just that such practices would be
>considered savage magic by the Quivini.
One possible source for such customs could be the traditional enemies of such clans, cults or societies. It is a very human method to adopt the enemy's strategy (or something similar) and use it against him. Take Argrath's Magical Union, or the Nightjumpers night-fighting tactics for unrelated examples out of the region.
Enemies who take heads could be the Alkothi (for the Sairdite tribes) or darkness, Praxian, primitive or chaotic (Dorastan) cultists using them for totemic magic protecting their lands. In all these cases, "they have begun with it!"
>If there are Heortling
>head-huntering cults, they are probably confined to the heirs of the
>Vestantes folk in upper Aggar and the Kerofini folk around Wintertop and
>Far Point. Certainly, the Orlanthi of Holay and lower Tarsh are not
>head-hunters - such practices would be no doubt be sneered at as sadistic
>Dara Happan barbarism.
Orlanthi history has shown over and over again that the Orlanthi are not above using their enemies' methods. A good part of the Second Council's followers were Heortling tribesmen, for instance.
While I said above that not all evil comes from the Storm Tribe, it is equally true that not all evil comes from outside...
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