> Alan & Carmel Brain on Humakti being allowed in birthing chambers:
>
> >> - -..except to sever the umbilical cord, a very Holy act to Humakti.
>
> I don't think this is true. The symbolism of a follower of Death severing
> the umbilical cord between a mother and a newborn is pretty creepy.
> I can see reasons why they might be allowed to do this (none of them
> particularily nice) but I don't think this is part of the normal birthing
> process.
Normal Birthing process? No. Creepy? Not usually. Given Humakt's severing of ties with his Kin, the symbolism is too obvious to be ignored. In this Aspect, Humakt is not so much a Death God as a God of Separation - one that cleanly divides this from that, not always at a natural boundary. Death is but one such separation, and not neccessarily the most important.
Instances:
Mother dies in Childbirth - A Humakti umbilical severance would prevent any bad consequences to the Child.
Child is stillborn - ditto for the Mother.
Child is to be adopted into another family/tribe/cult - ditto for both. Particularly important if a Slave or lower Caste is the mother, but also a way of avoiding rival-inheritor infanticide if the mother is Nobility, as the child would then only (considered to) be related to its Father.
Child is to be trained as a Humakti - this ceremony would remove at least one Geas and/or confer at least one benefit. Perhaps the ultimate Heroes are Born not Made. Perhaps Arkath had this ceremony.
Perhaps calves of Herdmen treated in this way could grow up to become Human.
Perhaps cutters-of-umbilical-cords become De Facto Humakti, at least temporarily, as it's a very minor Heroquest itself.
Other thoughts re Humakt the Separator:
In the case of one unspeakable cult beginning with T that makes use of severed heads and thus mixed identities, I can see Humakti being particularly diligent at removing this abominable confusion of identity, this mixing of this with that.
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