Chaotic Acts

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 21:38:56 +0100 (BST)


I can follow the idea of performing an act strengthens the deity who first performed that act, or the deity who "owns" the act, that makes sense in that performing the act causes some resonance in the God Plane, reinforcing the original path. However, I am having trouble connecting this to the idea that these acts are intrinsically chaotic.

The main acts that have been mentioned are rape, kinstrife and cannibalism.

Ragnaglar raped Thed and Thed demanded justice from Orlanth, becoming the goddess of rape. Does the act of rape strengthen Thed or Ragnaglar? What about Gagarth, Vadrus or even Orlanth? These carried off goddesses in God Time and raped them, so are they strengthened by the act? What about other deities outside the Orlanth pantheon? Are they strengthened by the act or do Orlanthi rapists only strengthen Ragnaglar? Was Ragnaglar's rape of Thed a chaotic act or was it an act that weakened the fabric of the cosmos, thus allowing Chaos in? After all, neither Ragnaglar nor Thed were chaotic at the time, they only became so afterwards. Ragnaglar was sent mad by the Sex Demons in the Pit, does this mean that the Sex Demons are the instigators of rape and hence they are strengthened? If so, where is the chaos, because the Sex Demons were probably not chaotic.

What about kinstrife? Is this intrinsically chaotic? Orlanth practised kinstrife before he realised it was bad. He fought a number of his kin, including Storm Bull, Gagarth and Daga. DOes this make him chaotic? Does performing the Orlanth Defeats Gagarth HeroQuest strengthen the owner of Kinstrife and increase the strength of chaos? This would imply that re-enacting an Orlanth Quest strengthens Chaos.

I do not know who first practised cannibalism. Cacodemon taught this to the Ogres, but is this the first act? I doubt it. What about other deities who practice cannibalism? Are they strengthened by acts of cannibalism? Does ritual cannibalism, where the victor devours part of the vanquished to gain abilities/strength, strengthen chaos, even though it is performed for different reasons?

I think the whole area is fraught with difficulties and is not as clear cut as "rape/cannibalism/kinstrife = chaos".

Simon



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