Re: Bestiality in Prax? from Richard Hayes on 2012-02-18 (World of Glorantha)

From: Richard Hayes <richard_hayes29_at_Oefcjbtq2OrOTnPHJnAzQbCJ0pbqOLWlzw91D8qSOjSkVDRGsOqqD-TSHxpU>
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:01:03 +0000 (GMT)

The (uncanonical) Book of Drastic Resolutions issue about Prax suggested that, unlike the outsiders mentioned below, the Cannibals did see themselves as part of the Way of Waha. They claim they were part of the Survival Covenant to decide who would eat and who would be eaten -- and for them, this process meant that they should eat other humans! (I believe there is a version of their cult in Tales of the Reaching Moon #9 too, but I don't know what it says. I suspect that the passage in Book of Drastic Resolutions is a summary of the fuller write-up. Is the author in this group?)

It is suggested that the Cannibal Cult believes that theirs is the true way of Waha and everyone else got it wrong (presumably 'mainstream' Praxian tribes believe the opposite), but maybe a more logical explanation is that they were a human tribe which had no animals to compete against, so Waha ended up sanctioning their unorthodox way of life within the Survival Covenant -- after all, they had to eat something. To me this offers a better explanation as to why their behaviour might be sort-of tolerated within the Way of Waha than that it is a long-standing mistake that the rest of Waha society has never bothered to correct.

It is also suggested that the Cannibal Cult gains (unspecified) magic from the ritual consumption of sentient creatures of their own race who are their enemies. They gain more magic from consuming more powerful beings, which commits the cult to a risky lifestyle even by the standards of other Praxian tribes.They can eat other sentient creatures, but apparently don't eat herd animals.

This write-up suggests a cult rather than a tribe (taking in misfits and exiles from other tribes as well as people born into the cult?), and possibly even a cult which is not comprised solely of humans?

Also do Cannibals still worship Waha (in their own way) alongside their more unusual ritual magic?Logically they probably should -- if they think Waha blesses what they do

Richard Hayes

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss_at_UZIJtURiWs2ws_oNJac1jWjOFmdJcdQiVL87nNB77zDMhvoZP6rE8MsmPQnYxmVPLKITP0Dv5gOltVoaBw.yahoo.invalid> To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, 18 February 2012, 10:28
Subject: Re: Bestiality in Prax?

Andrew:
>But what about the Cannibal Cult, which commits cannibalism but is
> not 'objectively' chaotic? I think that perhaps normal Praxians
> (that is, non-cannibal cultists) consider the Cannibals chaotic.

I don't think that normal Praxians see the Cannibal Cult as chaotic as they are accepted as one of the minor tribes of Prax in a way that, for example, the Broos are not.

However, they are clearly not part of the Covenant as they gained a different way of surviving.

> Or perhaps the Cannibal Cultists heroquested to establish their
> practices as sanctioned by Waha and therefore not chaotic (I seem
> to remember something about them claiming that Waha had allowed
> their rituals, so perhaps they have a myth/quest for it).

Maybe, but it doesn't sound likely to me.

The Newtlings, Basmoli Berserkers, Unicorn Riders and Agomori are all accepted parts of Prax but haven't HeroQuested to Waha to become sanctioned. So, why should the Cannibal Cult?

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