Andrew E. Larsen
On Feb 23, 2012, at 7:48 AM, David Cake wrote:
>
> On 22/02/2012, at 9:08 PM, Andrew Larsen wrote:
>
> > Ok, but how do they survive otherwise?
>
> They don't necessarily - they are a cult, not a tribe. Only the knowledge of cult practices needs to survive - and the knowledge survives because many shamans who never use the rites still preserve the knowledge of them.
>
> > Prax is an extremely harsh place. The Beast Nomads survive because they have a culture that is very well-adapted to the ecology of the place. The Agimori survive because they are biologically adapted in a way that regular humans aren't and because they focus very aggressively on hunting. What do the Cannibal Cultists do for food other than have the occasional holiday feast of mock-pork? It seems unlikely that they can be as effective as hunters as the Agimori, since they lack the Men-and-a-Half's special adaptations, and the Agimori are a pretty marginal group, just barely surviving when compared to the Beast Nomads. I guess it seems likely to me that cannibalism is the particular adaptive strategy that the CC uses to survive.
>
> Nope, cannibalism is secondary. The adaptive strategy is learning to live with angry ghosts.
> And they aren't a tribe, they are a cult - they do for food mostly what they did before they joined the cult, IMO, with some adapting to their circumstances.
> One pattern is probably living like oasis folk, only comparitively unmolested by passing nomads. Another pattern is probably to raid, and then retreat to to ghost territory to evade pursuit.
>
> > Are you suggesting that the CC is confined to a particular oasis that is haunted enough that other Praxians avoid it? That's an interesting idea, but it sort of limits what one can do with them.
>
> Nope, just that a particularly haunted oasis provides a situation that the cult is well equipped to take advantage of.
>
> Cheers
> David
>
>
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