Re: Ompalam, Malia and other possibly chaotic dieties

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_DKZgcdEMOGcwNy8-3e1YRlkmAkecYDFA_SfiCHxtnv31AUGsQFUdASP2jH5oJJOX5Ar>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:58:53 +1200


On 8/21/2012 11:27 PM, simon_hibbs2 wrote:
>
>
>> The trouble with chaotic cannibalism is that Greg's populated glorantha
>> with a large variety of cannibals, most of which are neither Ogres or
>> chaotics.
> We already know that cannibalism is killing someone of your own species for the purpose of eating them.

The definition of cannibalism is eating the dead flesh of your own species (or to be more precise -
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cannibalism ). Otherwise you can get the crazy situation where a cannibal can avoid being corrupted by chaos by having somebody else do the killing (and no, I'm not at all impressed by the legalistic solution you proposed).

> This is why troll funerary rites don't count - they generally didn't do the killing and even if they did it wasn't for the purpose of consumption.

Except that Karrg's Sons are ritually obliged to eat a kin every season. That's cannibalism. And in the good old days before the Enlo curse, there were only Dark Trolls available for consumption.

> Presumably on this basis a human eating a found corpse, while a cannibal in the common sense, doesn't risk chaos taint again because the intentional slaying isn't there.

In other words, the "common sense" of the word is not same as the definition you just claimed that "we already know".

> As for Trollkin, they don't breed true with other trolls, so are they really kin?

For the purposes of satisfying the ritual obligation of a Karrg's son, they are.

> >So where did the Orlanthi get the myth that cannibalism is chaotic? They
> >weren't particularly plagued by cannibalism during the Great Darkness
> >and one Vingkotling tribe was founded by a cannibal.
> And others were head hunters. If they weren't very careful how they went about either practice, bad things happened. At least that is my theory on this. There's plenty of room for differences of opinion.

That didn't answer my question. Where did the Orlanthi get the myth that cannibalism is chaotic?

I'll leave with just one final observation: this is what we seem to be

         Rape is chaotic. No exceptions.

         Cannibalism is chaotic unless practiced by the Praxians, the Uz, the Saliligori of Homago, the Cannibal Cult, the Earthshaker

         Priesthood of KeroFin, a couple of Vingkotlings, just about every other cannibalistic culture except the Ogres.

The first is nice and clean. The second had more exceptions to the rule than people who are actually caught by it. Until you can put forward a nice clean definition of chaotic cannibalism, I think we're done.

--Peter Metcalfe            

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