Re: Berserk OTT!!

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 09:19:47 +1000

"Old Broddi Clapsaddle loved her, and trusted her, but Broddi was humakti, and therefore dead, no longer of the clan. No one should trust the dead in matters of the living, even though Broddi was otherwise much respected, for he was wise for a man - even the women said so - and he bred the finest fighting cuks in all the Far Place. Yet blood is blood only when it flows."

Heys folks

Christoph gave some sound advice on forcing Humakti to be accountable *if* you're allowing them to use Uroxi-style berserk.

My HUMAKTI RULE #1 : Never take Humakti for granted. They are feared for a reason.

Humakti are 'dead' (consecrated to the power of death), kinless, and sundered from the bonds of kinship. Their clan has already conducted their funeral rites. These are all very good reasons why they are feared even among former family. If they still reside on a stead rather than at a cult lodge, they will live by themselves away from the communal hearth. They tend to keep away from the crops and the herds (which are dependent on fertility), extricate themselves from the endless round of gifting and obligation that is central to Orlanthi life, and dedicate themselves to alien concepts like strict honour and separation and a strange absolute morality at odds with general Orlanthi expediency.

In short, Humakti are strange. Dedicating oneself to Humakt is a bit like a member of a staunch Protestant family selling all their wordly goods and joining the Moonies. (i.e. a large overlap in core religious ideas, though with alien and novel concepts also added. Abandonment of most family and social ties. Dedication to ideals outside the cultural mainstream. Social embarrassment and disruption. Indignation on the part of families - 'How could they?!').

My main point is that the bloodline of a humakti won't pay weregild. The dude is dead. Her ways are not our ways. Given that the concept of weregild is absolutely central to Heortling society, and that feuds and legal suits have an entertainment value akin to our professional sports and tv combined, I'm sure that the principles of weregild still apply.

So who pays? The cult of Humakt pays. If the death was in accordance with honour and cult goals, no way, and pity the clan who persists in its suit, given that a prime determinant of Orlanthi justice is how many dudes with swords line up behind you . But if it was a senseless and meaningless death, say an casual slaughter during a berserk spell, then yes, honour would induce the cult to pay, and it would not give credence to the devotee's action. The implications: *if* (and personally, its a big if) you allow berserk feats that are not death songs, then humakti who learn such feats must be thoroughly inculcated with a sense of responsibility about their proper use. (I would have thought this was obvious in a cult that is built on honour). The cult of Humakt cannot afford endless feuding with every clan in Sartar over weregild: not only does it dilute cult resources and purpose, it is dishonourable.

When a humakt kills someone, she has an obligation that the truth of it be known. 'This person met death because they lied, because they colluded with clan enemies, because they betrayed their clan.' For the cult to survive *within* society, as opposed to being completely outlawed, Orlanthi have to believe that Humakt exists to serve the greater good. This is difficult enough at the best of times.

If a player uses berserk feats casually, and kills allies in doing so, I would play that they attract *severe* penalties both cultic and supernatural. They are misusing and dishonouring the power of Death. They wouldn't have made it as devotees in the first place.

Given that we are encouraged in HW to generate high level characters on the fly, it becomes even more important to convey the basic motivations and orientations of the cults: something that skill and spell lists doesn't always instill. Humakt is a particularly important case: entwined within but also alien to the weave and woof of Heortling culture. So who's doing the social aspects of the cults in Thunder Rebels? (I, BTW, have been asked to cover weregild, and am happy to base my figures on David's KODP assumptions).

John


nysalor_at_...                          John Hughes
johnp.hughes_at_...

They began to weave curtains of darkness They erected large pillars round the Void With golden hooks fastend in the pillars With infinite labour the Eternals
A woof wove, and called it Science.

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