> This is Eurmal. Eurmal does not obey rules.
I have to say, I've always found the Heortling Eurmali trickster, as presented in _Storm Tribe_, a bit implausible.
As presented in _Storm Tribe_, Eurmali are a clear threat to the community 99.99% of the time, and are useful only when someone needs to do one of a small number of rituals. It seems implausible that an elected leader would take responsibility for such a person, and even more implausible that the community would keep an elected leader who tried. Heortlings don't even seem to let shamans live in their villages -- why would they allow a violent psychotic to live in the chief's hall?
By the way, the trickster bond described in _Storm Tribe_ doesn't offer much protection -- it just means that the Eurmali will betray the community all at once at the worst possible time, rather doing it a little bit every day. At best, it turns Charles Manson into Ted Bundy.
Eurmali must be less dangerous than _Storm Tribe_ makes out. Or, they are kept outside of the community until needed, or maybe they are magically called forth from the community as part of the relevant rituals. There just doesn't seem to be any way to maintain a strategic reserve of dangerous lunatics inside a normal Heortling community.
Rob
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