> I realize now that my version of Humakti has been totally "Gregged," but with
> it, also, I must think, the idea of Humakti sword companies or Humakti thanes
> or the Lismelder or anything of the like. Here is his exact listing of
> personality types:
>
> "Any
> >modern day analogies?
> Ted Kazinsky? Serial killers. Sober Hell's Angels. People who like to kill
> things. People who kill things even though they don't like it. Visionary
> monks who have come back from the dead. "
>
> Damn! This is as bad as Elmal. Much retrofitting required.
>
C'mon, is it really that bad?
To re-invoke Morgan's "Black Company" parallel, it seems dead-on. While the narrator is one someone who "kills things even though he doesn't like it," (Croaker) the Black Company is full of rapists, arsonists, people who torture for fun (Silent), people who *like* to kill people (Mercy), thugs & bullies (nearly everyone), and someone who seems pretty close to a sociopathic serial killer to me (Raven). They *enjoy* massacring opponents in several parts of the books, note.
I, for one, wasn't reading Greg as saying all Hoomakti had to be slavering nutballs who murder while throwing their feces at people and giggling, but people that Are Not Normal for the most part. I'd differ in saying that almost anyone could be driven to worship Humakt under the right conditions. Being an obsessed anti-undead killing machine of the Lismelder is Not a Completely Normal Person, in my book.
If anything, though, I do wonder if *my* perspective on Humakt, for one, wasn't influenced by the halycon RQ2 days of, "Damn, this character sucks, might as well worship Humakt and see if I get a good gift to salvage him." The game mechanics encouraged you to play Humakt and Yelmalio, and I also saw both cults *way* overrepresented in any RQ game I played in. Elves, too, for that matter. So it encouraged us to see Humakt as "normal." (Granted, the rules forgot to mention the 30% discount for spirit magic for psycho killers who join the cult, but... ;)
While IMG if not IGreg'sG some normal folks join Humakt (and is Greg saying they don't,e ver?), are they the *majority* of the cult? Or maybe a plurality?
Personally, I've always rather thought that the grim, fearless, detached uber-Mercenary theme for Humakt was a bit of a myth within Glorantha, propounded by the same, that "covered up" the fact that Humakt would cheerfully allow chaos monsters, psycho killers, the Kingdom of War and other nasties to worship him. He's not very discriminating.
Of course, your local Humakt temple can always say, "No psychos allowed," and the priest can reject them. (Just as a different temple might be comprised completely of psychos.)
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