"Oh Great Humakt, Pitiless Lord of Death, please ignore us and go and look with Your Dread Gaze upon other people. Ta."
I imagine this sort of thing might a part of regular worship ceremonies for Orlanthi - along with the myths about Humakt lending Orlanth death for his struggles (the Humakti in the rite help the warband, despite their lack of kinship) there is a ritual "refocussing of the attentions of Death" to people outside of the group (the Humakti in the rite go away to kill other people). This could easily be a corrollary of health and fertility phases in sacred rites.
As others have noted, the object of the worshipper is clearly not to gain some magic (as in normal rites) but to be ignored or spared - just like Roman people offering to the sea before a sea voyage they don't want *something* they want *nothing* - "May I *not* live in interesting times". I'm curious about whether propitiation *does* give the *entity* something (whatever it is that the entities normally get as a result of the Compromise maybe?). Do the hoary old orthodox windbags have a point when they say it is better to give to Kadone and Vinga and Chalana Arroy than to Valind or Malia?
Has anyone got any thoughts about propiation in other cultures than the Orlanthi? Did cowering Heartlanders give offerings to Orlanatus when he and his people ravaged the lands so they they would keep away from them and go and ravage others? Are there sects of magi in Carmania who venerate the negative principles in order to fulfill some ancient responsibility? Do Lunars do this, or do they have other ways (the Cult of Blaskarth?), or does the Moon already incorporate weal and woe with Her Many Faces?
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John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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