Here's a few personal thoughts. This is definitely *not* a rules-based reply, and very much a **personal** vision of Humakt, representing one set of possibilities among many. I hope there may be a few ideas worth sharing.
I guess there are two paths to worship and devotion, the 'Humakt chose me at initiation' life path, and the 'Death scared/traumatised/cut down all but me/ generally messed me around and claimed me' midlife conversion path. I think that Humakt is an exception to most Heortling cults in in that most devotees come from the second path. However, character generation favours the first. Let's compromise and assume an early sign that came to the called one soon after initiation.
Soon after initiation, young Broddi goes on his first cattle raid. Things go badly wrong, there is bloodshed and death on both sides. Broddi sees a companion killed in combat, and he also experiences for the first time the feeling of cutting down an opponent in cold blood. He watches an enemy die on the ground before him, a victim of Broddi's sword. The experience affects him deeply, though the only way he can describe it is that something cold has awakened within.
Narrator visions of Humakt vary a lot, as do the various tribal manifestations of the cult. There's a range of interpretation from the 'feared and abhored, celibate, my shadow brings ill-wyrd, pregnant women and animals stay clear of me' grim traveller to the 'happy homesteaders dressed in black, marrying gleefully and practicing kool sword tricks' vision described in a recent thread on Lokarnos.
Threads (and heated discussions) on what Humakti are and are not have quite a history on this list, and I don't want to start another one, so just make sure you and your GM agree on the broad vision of humakt within your clan, and be prepared to encounter alternative manifestation of the cult. :)
Humakt visits us all, and his face is different to each of us.
For this example, Humakti among Broddi's clan fall into two camps: there are those who a little strange, but who live in community, take partners and some who even manage to marry. There are also wilder devotees and others 'claimed by death', who part by choice and part by community pressure, have been forced to the edges. They are solitary, apart, and feared.
IMG, humakti are never a popular cult, they are always to a greater or lesser extent 'on the margins', they have an alien value system that sits ill at ease with the values of the broader clan, and the touch of the god effects them personally in various diverse ways. Some humakti maintain a semblence of normal life, and may even live in lodges with wives and husbands, others find comfort in warrior lodges where they live with other humakti, a few are so powerful, strange or crippled that they have to shun normal human contact.
Broddi grows remote from his brothers. He is less inclined to share in their exploits, their womanising, their continual schemes to win cattle and fame. He is burdened by nightmares and disturbing visions. He becomes obsessive about unimportant things like telling the truth. Though he dare not share this with anyone, he sees strange things in the shadows, and can tell when someone is going to die. His previous obsession with finding a wife suddenly seems a strange and somewhat useless pursuit. He is not sure who he is, what he may become, or why his world has changed so much.
The elders will watch this with consternation, and eventually they will admit what they feared but dare not voice: the shadow of Death Himself has fallen on Broddi.
Any young humakti will face a range of challenges as he or she awakens to their destiny. Pick from any of the possibilities below:
No matter what their **personal** response to their calling, the **social** response from those around them will usually be profound. No one wants their daughter to marry a humakti. Even close kin can find the changes difficult to deal with. In the close confines of a bloodline lodge, it is difficult to hide anything for very long.
Sooner or later Broddi will understand, or be told, what has happened to him. No doubt the truth, though a terrible one, will come with a great wave of relief. He will seek the company of others like him. He will sit at the feet of sword godar and listen to their terrible tales, he will train with the blade bearers and discover an awakening sense of purpose, discipline, and perhaps even peace.
As an initiate of the god, Broddi will gain a sense of stability. He will then have to face a fundamental decision. Will he sunder his ties to his birth clan? To what extend can he do this? The options are terrifying. Can he face his family's disappointment and incomprehension and return to live among them? If matters of family honour make it difficult for him to marry, he might at least find a partner, and a measure of contentment among his kin. The gulf he feels will make life difficult, but perhaps not impossibly so.
Or should he seek a life among the brothers and sisters of the sword, becoming a humakti mercenary, living a regimental life away from his birth kin but among those who share his values, those who can provide solace and comfort in the group marriage, the regimental life, and the close companionship of professional warriors. (see the last chapters of Helden for an exploration of this).
Or should he surrender completely to the call of the God, understanding that Death may come at any time, and that he is privileged to experience and understand its Truth? His old world will die to him, and the new world will offer little comfort, save the peace of he who has accepted death.
Its a terrible choice. No doubt Broddi will live for at least a time among the Sword Brothers. If he truly is called to be a devotee, the God will manifest this call in a variety of ways. Perhaps Broddi will see ghosts and the lingering dead, terrifying in their power, and be driven to the point of madness before he learns to master them with the power of his God. Perhaps he will sense Death as it moves among men, and battle his commitment to telling the truth with the pain he unleashes by sharing what he knows. No one wishes to know that death is upon them, and the bearer of such news will be hated and feared as word of his terrible gift spreads.
As his prowess with the blade grows, there may also be growing confrontation and crisis. Does Broddi surrender to the killing power of his blade, becoming Death Incarnate, slaying without fear as only a kinless man can do? Is killing purgative for him, or must he face the dead again each night in his dreams? Or does he use his sword to teach the power of Humakt, refusing to kill those who are not yet ready for death, sparing the unworthy, and with each spared life creating one more clansman who hates him and wishes his death at any cost?
For all of these paths, Broddi may find a teacher within his cult. The first feats he learns will all be focussed on resolving these deep inner turmoils.
And as a devotee? His life will be devoted to the God in whichever form he has understanding enough to bear. Self-discipline and honour will mean a solitary, inner-centred existence, even when he is among brothers and sisters of the sword. Contemplation and ritual - of the sword and of the blade that is thought, will take up much of his day. Self-mortification and ascetic discipline is one path taught by the masters, riding the waves of death in destruction and killing is another. Broddi's outer world may involve stead life, weaponthane or mercenary duties, but his consciousness will always be on Death in the World and Death beyond the World. He may grow to disdain the urgings of his flesh or he may value them as brief sparks in an eternal darkness. Humakt visits us all, but his face is different to each of us. Broddi's life, however long or short, violent or peaceful, will be centred on the Truth of Humakt and the purity of death.
MG. YGMV. John
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