I'd like to elaborate on this point. We often seem to discuss things like this as if the population number needs to be both reasonable and sustainable. This does not need to be the case. Something like the Cannibal Cult in Prax does not need to exist with about 1000 members for years on end. It is a religious practice that could easily be preserved by a single shaman, by a ghost, written down somewhere in a recipe book, etc. It could easily spread like a craze throughtout Prax for some specific reason in a bad year and then fade away again (or be eradicated by other Praxians, or abandoned)
There could be 5000 Cannibals gathered this year and they are actively recruiting due to either high levels of Hungry Ghost activity, or a charismatic leader (a Jamie Oliver for Cannibals, passing it on), or a drought causing general starvation with cannibalism being a last resort. Next year the cult has disappeared, being killed, disbanded, abandoned, by all of its memebers.
Keith
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> > If the hungry ghosts keep Praxian beast riders away from a water hole, I doubt that Oasis Folk would manage to stay. Such haunted places would not be among the official oases, but minor sources of water.
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> Guys, just an aside. There are less than 1000 Cannibal Cult members in all of the Wastelands, probably far less (their numbers are probably not dissimilar to the total number of ogres in Prax and the Wastes). They are a group so small that they are not even listed on the population breakdowns. The Cannibal Cult is just an example of many strange cults and groups that exist throughout Glorantha that don't easily fit into the boxes outsiders try to make.
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> Jeff
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