But if you didn't know who committed the crime, it might be healthier to blow off steam and take it out on a trickster rather than let it fester with no action. If you find out who did it later, then you can have you revenge.
> My first response was to wonder how close-kin deal with a hearthmate who
> becomes recognised as an Eurmali. Do they pre-empt responsibility for her
> actions by casting her out? Are Eurmali in some ways kinless, as humakti
> become? Tricksters as 'orphans' feels right to me, at least some of the
> time. If I were a bloodline head, I'd certainly not want to be responsible
> for the actions of a known trickster, as bloodlines usually are for their
> members.
IMO, a community trickster (in-fact any trickster) is more likely to have been 'touched by the trickster', rather than having made a deliberate choice to become an Eurmali. Its a vocation for people with Asperger or Turet's (spelling?) syndrome, schizophrenia, kleptomania, alcoholism and other such conditions.
If a bloodline spawns a trickster then they only have a few possibilities: Strangle the trickster (probably kindest to all involved!); Outlaw the trickster (perhaps ADD & hyperactive children are handed over to roving trickster bands so they can be with their 'own kind'); Give the trickster protection (the family head becomes the tricksters chieftain).
It is probably safest to keep them drunk or high on hazia for the safety of the community at large. (I remember hearing once that the piece of straw often found sticking out of a village idiot's mouth in imagery was in-fact a stalk of hemp - and that it was partially the constant chewing of this that was the cause of the idiot's idiocy!)
> So how far does the chieftain's protection of his trickster extend? I
can't
> believe chiefs have much power to deny weregild payments. Who then pays?
And
> any chieftain who lets his trickster get involved (even in a
symbolic/ritual
> sense) in inter-clan feuding is *asking* for trouble.
In this case, doesn't the chieftains protection of a trickster also entail taking responsibility for any acts he commits? Although there are benefits from having a tame trickster, there are also problems. (I have visions of Slaine and Ukko the Dwarf from 2000AD leaving an shop, Slaine picks up Ukko by the ankles and shakes him to dislodge all the items he has collected). When in a political situation, you keep your trickster on a VERY short leash (unless you REALLY want a war).
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #793
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