Re: The origin of Ogres.

From: ian_hammond_cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at__4X4wEiqb_gYyN5UKjSk99C56P4LnS6UYWUQDQvPnPanJcwQUbPi-MLI9>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:07:54 -0000

> I think it's a little more complicated than this. You have to have an act
> that is:
> 1. Against Your Gods/Spirits/Saints
> 2. Done knowingly
> 3. Once Is Risky; Repeated Behavior Is Worse
> 4. Not Otherwise Covered by Your Pantheon

I think that bringing Chaos into the world is a deliberate act dome by the desperate who gain the power for their ritual by a taboo act. I don't think that the taboo act alone is enough though, that eating your enemies in secret makes you an ogre. I think that the taboo act allows you to power a ritual to summon chaos into the world. I many ways breaking taboos is dangerous because its the way you summon chaos; I dont' think its necessarily that becoming a rapist makes you a broo, but that you keep opening the barrier of the world to chaos and letting it in through your actions, and you might be corrupted through that.

Transgressive behaviour has incredible power, breaking taboos is strong-magic. Murder, rape, eating people - these are powerful magical acts. Not all transgressions need be chaotic. Some 'accepted' cults have ways to use the magic provided by transgression in ways that do not invite chaos into the universe - done right their rituals channel the power in an accepted way.

Part of the reason we often talk about using chaotic magic being born of desperation is that I suspect it allows you to overcome limitations of the normal formula like 7*7*2 for crossing the barrier to the other side. Murder of intelligent being in a sacrifice, ritual rape, or cannibalism - these taboo acts weaken the barriers in a way that allows you to more easily access the other side.

Chaotic groups are often small, have limited access to temples etc. So they are unlikely to have access to magic through community. They have to transgress against the local community to power their rituals; I suspect that they may even need there to be something to transgress against. FWIW, I'm not sure if we even know that chaos demons are gods in the same sense that theists or animists normally interact with their deities. Nor do we know that chaotic magic reaches through to other world; in fact, it may reach through to the primal chaos that lies outside the world instead. It's entirely possible that chaotic magic requires some act of transgression as its power source in all instances - that is the way that you break the barrier that let's chaos into the world.

That certainly might explain chaotic mutations as well - willing mutation of your body is an act of transgression that might be harmful or beneficial in itself - but might be useful as an power source in casting chaotic magic too.

So I suspect that eating your enemies in secret as part of a ritual to bring Cacodemon into the world, might allow you to bless your pregnant women so that they give birth to stronger, healthier, smarter babies and are more capable of surviving the world. That might be why you turn to it as a means of survival in the Darkness when all the gods seem dead.            

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