Peter Metcalfe says many things about chaos and leaves me utterly puzzled.
Larsen's model: There are acts that are chaotic. These acts are associated
with some chaotic force (spirit, god, whatever). performing these acts
strengthens that force and chaos in general. Unprotected people who perform
these acts risk the attentions of the force they are strengthening, usually
with gross physical effects. Some people, however, are protected.*
Protected people avoid the personal effects of their chaotic actions,
although the world is still weakened -- sometimes close to the "scene of
the crime," sometimes elsewhere.
Metcalfe's model: Some acts are collateral worship of chaotic deities. This
strengthens chaos but not much, since other gods are probably getting some
of that worship, too. Other acts are direct worship of chaotic deities that
may cause observable chaotic effects. There is no way to be sure which is
which without a lot of pawing through myth looking for "chaotic" actions by
non-chaotic gods, because then it can't be caotic, can it? Chaotic acts
cause chaos, but, if you're just being collateral about it, you get away
unscathed (by chaos, at any rate).
Maybe I am misrepresenting your model, but, if not, it's full of
hair-splitting, specal cases, and "because I said so" holes. I really don't
understand why raping someone is direct worship of Thed but eating someone
is not direct worship of the Ogre ancestor -- he's the source of
cannibalism, for crying out loud! Urain is, apparently, a god of no
particular kind of chaos (if he's a chaos god anymore instead of bad
weather, as Wesley Quadros asks), so I guess he just gets collateral
worship. Krjalk is god of treachery -- how treacherous do you have to be
before it's direct worship?
I really don't see why my model is so much inferior to yours.
Peter Larsen
- This protection can be anything from "rites that may slow down this
process" to scapegoats to only performing the acts when you are your
goddess and therefore mostly beyond the reach of chaos. Some (even most)
people, cults, and cultures probably have no idea that they are protected
in this way.
And by "protected," I don't mean they get away with it in the long
run. Imagine an Exile clan. Ravaged by history, they turn increasingly to
the worship of Maran. Many of the women eat human flesh on holy days, some
do it frequently. They are protected by the ecstacies of Maran, who is too
fierce for the Ogre Ancestor to challenge in any meaningful way. But the
protection of the Goddess is not perfect -- there are those who enjoy the
meat for itself, there are others who are guilty about the rites. Slowly,
an aura of unease settles around the tula -- the men and women become
harsher toward their enemies, but it is a hard time and harshness is the
way of it. Many of the women and some of the men dream about the sacred
feast, some are made uneasy and guilty by these dreams, some are made
hungry. Eventually, after a decade or two, the clan is known for the
savagry of its raiding. A little later, warriors of the clan are trapped in
the mountains with no food. They take to killing and eating each other. It
feels good to them. They imagine that they have discovered what makes the
women strong, but they are really worshipping another god. The survivors
make excuses to raid on their own. They bring back only some of their
captives. By the time they realize what they are really doing, it is too
late -- they belong to the ogre ancestor, and they are teaching his ways to
the clan. If the chief and priests don't notice, there may be an ogre clan
in Tarsh soon....
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