Praxian Dietary Practice

From: Peter Larsen <p3larsen_at_g0oj_31cOKtqYOQSwaIteq-HNck4XaaPrMiq3Qhb-optuwdwJwMRpY_aosvHorpUBRd>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:25:57 -0500


>
> Peter Metcalf:
> >Peter Larsen:
>
> So the Survival Covenant, which, in large part, is about deciding what is
> > and is not appropriate food, would be all loophole-filled when it came
> to
> > Outlanders? Eating someone is a big deal; doing it idly for random food
> > is... really hard to imagine.
>
> It is hard for a human Praxian to consider eating an Outlander. It is
> not so hard for a Morocanth to do the same because they already eat
> two-legs and are biased against them for cheating. Doing it idly for
> random food is your construction, not mine.
>
> I don't know about this. I am pretty sure that non-Morocanth Praxians
will cheerfully eat herd people because they are aware that herd-people are animals (I am reasonably certain that it's been explicitly stated, maybe in Drastic:Prax, but I am not sure how authoritative it is). Now, they don't come into possession of herd people all that often (catch them wild, get them as spoils in a raid or something), but, I expect when they do, unless they can trade them away quickly, most non-Morokanth will slaughter and eat them pretty quickly, since they aren't as useful as the tribe's own herd beasts (I expect this is true for most non-tribe animals, actually. What would a Bison rider want with a couple of Impalas besides a snack and some teeny-tiny skins?).

Most tribal cultures are very conservative; since there is a clear distinction between animals and people (and a spell or something to change one to the other -- assuming that made the leap from RQ to HQ and from one-system-fits-all magic to theism/animism), I can't see Praxians thinking "Outlanders are the same as animals."

>
> >> But I didn't say anything about eating other Praxians, I spoke about
> >> eating outlanders who are _not_ from other tribes.
> >>
> > I dunno; you think other Praxians wouldn't use this as an excuse if it
> was
> > available?
>
> They could but they are highly unlikely to do so because they are human
> and their taboo against eating their own extends to the human
> Outlanders. This taboo does not bind the Morokanth because the human
> outlanders are not their own.
>

The Praxian divide (as far as legitimate food is concerned) is between "animals that can eat off the land" and "people who eat animals." I don't think Praxians see Morokanth as "non-humans" so much as "other people who know how to behave" (as opposed to Heortlings, Lunars, Uz, Mostali, etc who are "other people who don't know how to behave"). Sure, Morokanth are weird, and you wouldn't want your sister to marry one, but you wouldn't want your sister to marry a High Llama, either, with their stuck-up ways or an Impala who can't hold his own in a manly hand-to-hand fight, or Spirits preserve you, some Outlander who doesn't even know what is decent behavior. Morokanth are weird, but they are more like other Praxians than anyone else, and they have fundamentally the same taboos and outlooks as their fellow Praxians.

> I would think Waha's law would be more absolute and less
> loop-hole-filled. "Don't eat this plant; eat that kind of animal."

Waha isn't the writer of Leviticus (which is more absolute and still
> filled with loopholes). He teaches people a way to survive because life
> out there on the wastes is absolutely brutal. They don't have the
> luxury of extensive lists of kosher food. If its edible (and isn't a
> horse), then Waha says dig in.
>
> I don't think they have extensive lists of kosher foods, although I expect
there is a lot of lore on what can be eaten by people and what has to be eaten by an animal first (Praxians must eat some plant matter), some of it established by Waha or other spirits, some it established by observation. Don't eat other people is a fairly fundamental law.

> > Presumably, Waha laid down some sort of laws that define what separates a
> > person from an animal.
> So how would Waha consider the Newtlings who are sometimes killed for
> their tails?
>

Is this a Praxian thing? I thought it was the Lunars (and maybe the Pavisians) who hunted Newtlings....

Anyway, maybe this is also a YGWV. I prefer a Glorantha with less casual cannibalism; others will feel otherwise.

Peter Larsen

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