Re: Ompalam

From: boztakang <daniel.mccluskey_at_8Tz1j6DZM9-iUoQdKiskIacl6jzV-BLb69I0lH4rzkIPEw5WT0UlC-qp6FS>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:40:10 -0000

>
> Take the well known trollkin burger served at the Thunderbreath
> Gobbleguts restaurant for example. Are the trolls when eating it
> performing a mundane act of cannibalism (and so become chaotic) or are
> they performing a magical act (doubtful - it's a burger!)

A trollkin burger is explicitly not cannibalism from a troll's POV. Food trollkin are never initiated into the cult of Kyger Litor, and thus are very much "food" as far as troll morality is concerned (as are humans, dwarfs, elfs, and, well, pretty much everything else.)

I am sure that trolls have cautionary tales about Value or Free Trollkin that somehow ended up in the food pens, and the horrible things that happened to the unfortunate Uz who unknowingly killed and ate them.

I could also easily see a Human who ate (perfectly safe for trolls) troll food potentially suffering the magical (and possibly chaotic) consequences of cannibalism. To my mind, avoiding Chaos is a matter of having a sound mythical foundation for what you do. Thus a troll CAN safely eat it's own child, so long as it has legitimately and ritually been declared "not a troll" according to the establishment of Kyger Litor. On the other hand, a normal Orlanthi could conceivably acquire a chaos taint for eating that same trollkin (on account of it being technically "people" according to Their worldview.)

I do think that the mindset of the actor factors heavily in determining if an act is chaotic or not... In the case above, IMO, an Orlanthi who goes into Gobbleguts bracing himself and thinking about how "Orlanth Survives Troll Hospitality" would suffer little or no risk of a chaos taint, even if they knowingly took a bite or two of some human-derived dish. On the other hand, an Orlanthi who is shocked to discover that the "travelling rations" they have been eating on patrol with their Uz allies was originally another orlanthi, might well find themselves suffering an unaccountable and growing desire to kill their enemies and eat them in secret.

In other words, if you THINK what you are doing (or have done, even accidentally) is chaotic, it is far more likely to lead to a taint, even if someone else might be able to do "the same" thing in relative safety.

(obviously, even the purest intentions are not a 100% guarantee of safety... chaos is evil like that)