Re: Re: Head Taking (was Baron's Friends)

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 20:16:52 +1000

> Really? I kind of imagined them as really "Old School"
> Orlanthi who didn't give up unsavory habits like head hunting. I see
> them living in some fairly inaccessible part of Sartar, inbreeding
> and getting into banjo duels....

That's the way I'd run it too. The Thanatari analogue is too forced and literalistic for me, though I do play a certain *frisson* associated with the chaotic resonances of the act. I also associate head taking with 'heroic' behaviours.

Taking a head can express mere disgust for a Praxian or Grazelander, and as such might be relatively common against such enemies. Taking an Orlanthi head is more complex in both motivation and perception. It *might* honour an enemy, but its also an act of extreme provocation, and risks starting a feud. Most of all, for me, it signals you're wanting to play with the big boys - that you consider yourself a hero, and so have done something suitably 'heroic' (alternative translation: 'dumb') to signal you've arrived, and to give everyone something to talk about. Taking a head will get you mentioned in every feasting hall across four tribes.

Taking a lunar head is not advised, for health reasons.*

Wulf began a discussion of head taking late last year, starting at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeroWars/message/8992

My own response included the following:

To take the head of a fellow Orlanthi is very risky, and such a provocative act that it could easily involve your
entire clan in a deadly and unforgiving feud.

To take someone's head is to steal part of their breath, and possibly prevent their spirit from taking its proper journey. It also dishonours the corpse, and prevents kin from making proper ritual and funery rite.

In taking a head, you bind some of your opponent's breath to yourself, and this can manifest in increased strength and courage or in other unexpected and not always positive ways. It is also uncomfortably close to chaotic behaviour, and might be judged as such if tried by a no-herd or a stickpicker, so only a known and respected warrior would normally be bold enough to risk it. Publicly taking a head makes you open to armed challenge at any time.

I'd personally see it occurring among Orlanthi only in two circumstances:

• When two clans are locked in a long running and deadly feud with no hope of peace or reconciliation, a feud where the utter obliteration of the entire clan is the goal.
  • When two champions or heroes have a long-running, highly personal hatred or rivalry that is well known and publicised. In their final encounter it is expected that the victor may take the vanquished opponent's head as part of Victor's Right. Of course, it is a mark of honour and high praise to return the head almost immediately, or leave the corpse undefiled as a sign of respect to an honoured opponent, but this doesn't always happen.

Cheers

John

---

nysalor_at_...                              John Hughes

Questlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/

I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, and soon that only bandits and soldiers will be left.

• Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths".