From: Mike Cule (mikec@room3b.demon.co.uk)
Date: Fri 26 Apr 1996 - 14:27:01 EEST
Martin replied that he didn't think that Humakt would care about what the
activities of Onslaught were doing to his reputation and assumed that Onslaught
would continue to be able to access Rune Magic in most places.
He justified this by saying that most people regard Humakti as being mad, evil
killers anyway.
And this is where I have to disagree. (Old time readers may care to skip the
following restatement of my Interventionist position in the Great How Active
Are The Gods Debate.)
I feel that although the reality of the gods is sustained by the belief of the
followers of the gods, their reality isn't totally decided by what is believed
about them. This is Glorantha, not WW's World of Darkness and reality isn't
subjective. Humakt has his own personality not that assigned to him by people
(and Martin was quoting the popular prejudice, not what Humakti believe about
themselves and their god) and when a follower of his is not following the way
of the god he has the power and the will to cut that person off. If not, no
Humakti would ever feel his sword shatter in his hand.
And though Humakt is Death, he is Death-for-a-purpose. He is Death-in-the-
service-of-Life. All the War gods of Glorantha exist to serve the social group
they draw their followers from and not just for the glory of ending life. They
would not be tolerated otherwise. And if Humakt did not have his overweening
sense of Honour he could not be part of the Orlanthi social matrix. (Oh, yes he
is! A detached and rather strange part but part nonetheless.)
I always have difficulty believing in long-lasting, sucessful Evil. (Yes, I know
how naive that is.) In a world like Glorantha where there are no huge
anonymous crowds to hide in I find it even harder to believe. I don't think
that Onslaught would last as long as he is depicted as doing although I
understand how much fun he would be as an NPC.
- --
Mike Cule
Actor and Genius.
AKA Theophilus, Prince-Archbishop of the Far Isles
(Arms: Purpure, an open book proper, without clasps. On the dexter page the
Greek letter Alpha or. On the sinister page the letter Omega of the same.
Motto: nulla spes sit in resistendo.)
Ask me about the Far Isles Medieval Society:
Better living through pan-medieval anachronisms.
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