On 22/02/2012, at 2:51 AM, Peter Metcalfe wrote:
> On 2/22/2012 4:32 AM, David Cake wrote:
>> Speaking of cannibalism, and a Western perspective - I was reading >> through the story of the Crusades in Arcane Lore, and I noticed that >> the Basmoli are said to have invoked the dark powers of the Cannibal >> God in their battle with Hrestol's people. Seems reasonable that this >> is the Cannibal Cult, more or less.
Yes. I think Westerners are likely to be a bit confused about the details of enemy spirit practices, but not so confused about the eating thing.
> There was a
> spell from which could get stronger through eating their enemies but
> that didn't quite flow naturally from the aims of feeding the hungry ghosts.
It is true that one didn't naturally follow from the other, but there is also no reason why a single magical practice can't do more than one thing (indeed, it is the norm). It is also true that without that spell, they wouldn't be called the Cannibal Cult at all.
Reading the description, though, a possible flaw in my fun theory is that the cult is described as being quite specific in its cannibalism, only beings of the same species as the caster can be eaten. It is possible that the dual nature of hsunchen gives them some flexibility here and eating humans satisfies the requirement, but also possible that it ruins my theory and hsunchen are counted as beasts not humans for this purpose. Obviously, I prefer the first option. The latter wouldn't rule out hsunchen predator cannibalism cults by any means (cannibalism has been observed in both lions and wolves), but would make it a lot less interesting for game purposes.
Cheers
David
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