Ogres -- was: The Thing With Many Bodies

From: Peter Larsen <p3larsen_at_g-pAQ18wBx2-ijNmDot5TBmIB58XTHE030_-lF4x9c4KMXtdXVFuGpDwVd_vjd4x4SN>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:24:37 -0400

While I can certainly see chaos creatures using whatever horrible reproductive methods the GM might wish (and the players will stand hearing about), I think that ogres reproduce just like normal humans, with all the various schemes, emotions, and entanglements that produces (plus, of course, the possibility of eating the partner, which is usually absent in normal human interactions).

I like this because it gives several sources for ogres:

1. Ogres raised by ogres. Baby shifts to solid food and learns to eat people along with other solid food. As Baby grows up, Baby learns ogre culture and understands ogre nature.
2. Ogre raised by humans. This would crop up mostly when a male ogre abandons a pregnant human woman, but could also happen if an ogre baby is lost and found by humans, an ogre family is killed and a baby is mistaken for a victim, whatever. The child grows up as a "latent ogre," socialized as a human and normal except for the occasional odd dream or urge. Many may never express their ogre nature at all, marrying into their adopted society and propagating ogreness into the community. Others have some sort of traumatic even that brings these urges to the fore -- exposure to dead human flesh and blood, extreme physical or mental trauma, experience with chaos, getting into trouble with the gods and spirits by breaking taboos and losing the protection of society's guardians, etc.
3. Humans who are cursed with ogreness for crimes against the gods, spirts, nature, whatever, or by falling under the sway of unwholesome powers. Since there is no way to know who was a "made ogre" and who was a "latent ogre" woken up by the event, this reinforces the taboos of society.

Anyway, that is my thought on that.

Peter Larsen

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 8:43 AM, In_a_flat_field <beautychokes_at_kLBDVIIUxxi7sWuTpSIDmyWbmJucowxbZxjVF1M4uZgo2UiGklYQwZZQm4xzVg5KDx8oheW5wh65jP0jOEs.yahoo.invalid>wrote:

>
>
> Ahhh. Interesting. That said, I was still going along cosmic horror lines.
> The idea that this is a being with a single consciousness and many seemingly
> normal and yet corrupted bodies (which explode into a chaos of tentacles at
> the worst possible moment) is one I like. As far as the infiltration of the
> womb goes....I'm thinking that this happens almost literally. Perhaps the
> woman breaks some kind of pregnancy taboo. Maybe the Thing comes to the
> dreams of the clan women who bear no children. It wears the form of a
> beautiful goddess and she/it offers fertility. Perhaps a single living
> fragment of the horror creeps INTO a sleeping womans womb and devours the
> unborn child, replacing it with a sort of changeling. In this way, the thing
> can insinuate itself into a stead over a lifetime....or worse, over
> generations.
> Although I can definitely see the similarities, ogres seem more like a race
> that propogate themselves via rape and adultery. They do what they do to
> survive (although they're horribly evil). The Thing With Many Bodies attacks
> the morale and purity of the clan in a host of fashions. It's more like a
> familial curse than anything else. I'm now of the mind that there should be
> some kind of seasonal test of purity conducted by Urox's followers. A bit
> like that bit in John Carpenter's 'The Thing' whereby the blood of the
> survivors is tested in an open flame. Only significantly more brutal. That
> way, the people don't resort repeatedly to the Urox followers ritual. It's
> just too savage and often results in the deaths of those entirely pure.
> For the record, I'm also going to have it absorb the bodies and souls of
> those it slays, keeping the clans bold ancestors trapped inside its
> multifarious selves.
> Would you say that's still too similar to ogres? I value any opinion on the
> matter. :)
>
> --- In WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com<WorldofGlorantha%40yahoogroups.com>,
> hcarteau_at_... wrote:
> >
> > Selon In_a_flat_field <beautychokes_at_...>:
> >
> > > (I'm thinking that it has some kind of fertility connection. I'm all
> for
> > > infiltration...what about the wombs of the clans women?) , but I really
> > > appreciated reading the learned community's take on the matter! ;)
> >
> > /// Your Glorantha is yours, but what you suggest is in fact well-known :
> it is
> > OGRES. They are very handsome (with flashing teeth) and they like to
> seduce
> > women so their race spreads. And yes, they do eat humans (which they call
> > food-men). "Eat your ennemy in secret" is their motto.
> >
> > The thing with many bodies I see more as a cthuloid horror, perhaps the
> > manifestation of the clan's fears and dark secrets.
> >
>
>
>

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