> Nice summary of Humakti attitudes, it largely agrees with how
> I've always seen them.
I second that.
> > I can imagine really hard-core Humakti refusing to draw their
> > sword at all, even to practice, unless they are going to kill.
>
> I'm not sure about this. I think every warrior is aware of the
> importance of practicing and honing his skills, afterall, how do
> you get better. It strikes me as a little cocky to say "I'm so
> good, I don't practice unless I get to kill you".
This sounds very celtic :)
I don't think it's common either, but a Sword of Humakt might well take such a geas.
In fact the "child" Sword of the Household of Death in my game has a geas that he must do his best to slay all his enemies. If he draws Ravenswing (the sword) on an enemy, then he must kill that enemy. He does practise though, since he doesn't think he is perfect. He is also still allowed to fight Humakti duels to first blood. The geas gives him interesting problems, if some cocky youth(s) come challenge him. He can't draw the sword on them, because he doesn't want to do such pointless killing. Luckily most believe him when se says "If you force me to draw my blade you are all dead". For small silly kids he just kicks them about a bit (it's not a fight, he thinks), or let's his big black shadowcat scare them away (think Greebo, from the discworld books).
> Unless of course they practice with wooden swords, leaving their
> Iron Swords to only be drawn if they taste blood.
I've been wondering about this too. The humakti I told about also has the geas "Wield only the sword Ravenswing", but I think he can still use wooden weapons when teaching- or practising swordplay with the other members of the Household of Death.
-Adept
Powered by hypermail