(all that follows is very much IMHO and IMG - no offense is meant at any point)
ok...
>Well, other than ordinary people crossing the street to avoid him
>maybe yes.
I'm afraid this is precicely what I am trying to object to (sorry) ...
>A resheathed Humakti is no longer part of their family. They would
>no longer live with their family but instead would live wherever the
>chief put them. This is very unlike the life of a "normal" Heortling.
and this differs from the normal duties of a huscarl?
>bear in mind that abandoning
>family and clan is one of the worst crimes in Heortling society
but they are not "abandoning family and clan", they are serving them by taking a ritual and legal role essential in Heortling society...
>There are both emotional
>and ritual bonds holding Heortling society together (cf wyters),
>these would tend to reinforce one another yet Humakti are pretty much
>entirely excluded from the whole ritual side except as outsiders
>(they cannot benefit from communal worship although they do still
>take part).
but I think they _do_ benifit from the emotional and ritual bonds of society even if they do so indirrectly - for a real world parrallel, everyone hates coppers and they consequently live largely outside of the rest of society (only dating/marrying/drinking and socialising with other coppers), but (unfortunately IMO and this is not a topic for this list but I hope you get my point) they are a part of society (and gain power and in certaun areas prestige there-from). Like Humakti, they do a job not many want to do (although a Heortling would feel that the job is a neccessary one, a view not felt by myself regarding our boys in blue..)
>Many (the Hoods faction) are quite able and willing
>to live a normal(ish) life but that is really just an example of the
>fact that fanatics do not always have to be obvious and anti-social.
well, professional soldiers to this day in the RW regularily do things that I would consider fanatical, anti-social, obsesive and quite frankly down-right inhumane but they are still considered "normal" (well, at least not too abnormal) by most of society (and societies) (and even more so in the past (maybe))...
>Of course the character who thought he was just invoking a legal
>escape clause when joining the Humakt cult might make an interesting
>one, he might find he's got more than he bargained for and there is
>only one honorable way out of the cult
I'm sorry but I think you are missing my point. A proffesional soldier/warrior/killer will as a matter of course do things (like killing people) that his family would normally be responsible for in normal Heortling law. Now a soldier/warrior/killer who really wants to take his job seriously had better find a way to avoid this...
This is not a case of a few blaggards trying to avoid justice, it is a decision essential for any dedicated weilder of death in Heortling society i.e. proffesional killers i.e. Humakti.
Your basic Heortling warrior is more in it for the honour, mead, boasting oppertunities and the admiring women... ( in the case of Uroxi, chaos scum tend to get short shift in court when suing for weregild)...
I apologise to those here that like Humakti as twisted dysfunctional psychos the lot 'em, and I'm sure plenty of that type do exist (just as they do in the RW army), but IMO they are a lot less interesting than the basically sane individuals (with family, wife and kids, who chose to deal death as a profession (e.g. professional soldiers, mercenaries etc in the real world) Turning them into cartoon charactertures does not do them justice (IMO) ... (BTW, I personally think anyone who joins the /frex SAS/ really IS a psycho but not in the one dimensional "cross the street, Yojimbo like, zombified weilder of death and witherer of crops/lions" etc way often presented on this list (and apologies to Nic whose comments I used to try and explain my views)..
Just my .. er .. roll of dosh...
Dougie.
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