Re: Uroxi sense Chaos-tainted/marked ?

From: Peter Larsen <peterl_at_...>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 12:42:19 -0500

At 5:30 PM +0000 8/29/02, simon_hibbs2 wrote:
>
>> Except "treating your enemy like human beings" is not a very
>> Heortling attitude.
>
>They certainly ahve a very robust approach to foreign relations,
>but I wouldn't go that far. "We routinely murder strangers just
>like Orlanth does" isn't quite normal Heortling customs so far
>as I know. For example, once cordial relations with a foreign
>traveller have been (somehow) established, they are usualy
>protected by some basic norms of behaviour.

        I'm not so sure. Strangers are generally fair game for anything. Clan is Kin, Tribe is almost-Kin, Other Sartari are almost-almost Kin, Strangers who know the Greeting might prove to be provisional almost-Kin, but Real Strangers have no relations, no recourse to law, and no rights. They are not fully "people."

        Now, I think that's an extreme approach; most Heortlings are average people and fairly reasonable (at least by their lights). Orlanth calls for generosity, so I doubt most Heortlings kill, rob, or otherwise abuse Strangers out of hand unless times are bad and the clan is very jumpy. After all, Heortlings are as greedy as everyone else, and the Storm Tribe benefited mightily from dealing with and even accepting Strangers (that's why Daddy O showed us the way to do it); the clan should do likewise.

        In Sartar in the early 1620s, I doubt many rebellion-oriented Heortlings are interested in discussing whether Lunars are human beings or not. They are the Enemy; anything you do to them is fair. Which, as you've noted, is the start of a slippery slope....

> > Hmmm, maybe Mr. Hibbs needs to spend some time in the godar's
>> tent (Urox or Maran, you pick), being tested for Lunar
>>Sympathies....
>
>Cool - I've got these realy interesting riddles I'd like to
>discuss with him.

        He certainly has questions to axe you....

Peter Larsen