> I really don't get this. I don't see how a specific action performed
> with one aim in mind (ie purification) somehow becomes completely
> chaotic when performed with a totally different aim in mind (ie for shit
> and giggles). Chaos is a mindless amorphous protoplasm outside
> glorantha - that it should enter glorantha dependent on the mental state
> suggests that it inherently obeys modern legal concepts regarding the
> division between the guilty mind and the guilty act.
I think it obeys inherently Gloranthan magical concepts, such as the distinction between a mundane act (murdering a bound captive) and a magical act (sacrificing a bound offering).
The way I think about this is that each culture or religion makes a magical pact with the universe. They sign up to a complex set of rituals, oaths, taboos, invocations, compacts and initiations. Taken as a whole these constitute a deal, or series of interlocking deals made between the individual, the community and the spiritual forces of the universe.
There are explicit references to stuff like this in the sources. The Great Compromise and the Praxian's Survival Pact are explicitly magical deals of this kind. Spirits of Reprisal are examples of a magical backlash against breaking such a deal. So the components of this interpretation already exist. This is just a more holistic take on the same ideas.
The terms of these deals vary hugely from one culture or religion to the next in the form of different taboos, traditions and obligations. Therefore the consequences of breaking them, in whole or in part, also vary considerably.
So it makes sense to me that a particular act made by one person in one culture has one consequence, while the same act performed by someone else in another culture has different consequences or even no consequences at all. If one person has a cultural taboo against that act, detailed in his mythology and empowered by his initiations and oaths taken at assuming adulthood, then of course performing that act is going to have severe consequences that would shock and surprise someone from a different culture with no such traditions.
Simon Hibbs
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