A Few More Thoughts on Maran

From: Peter Larsen <peterl_at_admin.stedwards.edu>
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 11:11:39 -0500


Greg Stafford says:

me:
>>>> Well, more or less. In a more extreme version, cannibalism is
>>>>problematic for Heortlings -- Maran cultists can get away with it in
>>>>rituals (barely -- people think they are awful and strange and a lot
>>>>of people think they are nasty, if not quite evil).
>
>The Marani can "get away with it" for the same reason that Humakti can "get
>away" with killing their kin: they are contained within a compartment of
>the social structure that is specifically "designed" to contain them.
>Their deities did these things and survived the Darkness into the current
>Time/Space cosmos. This does not mean that their acts are inherently
>different from the raw actions of cannibalism or murdering kin, but that
>the outlet exists, is acknowledged and contained.

        In another sense, the reason that the Marani can "get away with it" is that she isn't trying to get away with anything. She is just worshipping and expressing her goddess. I doubt many Marani get initiated because they want to eat human flesh and drink blood. They get initiated because Maran calls them, and they can be themselves nowhere else. If cannibalism was the major motivation, I would hope the examiners (mundane and spiritual) would catch it; I doubt failing a Maran initiation is a pleasant thing....

        On another note, is it possible that Maran's cannibalism comes to the cult through the Uz worship of the goddess? If so, would that "privilege" cannibalism among the Marani, since it is an Uz, and therefore natural, thing?

Peter Larsen

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