From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Fri 04 Jul 1997 - 21:17:44 EEST
James Frusetta suggests that:
Good point. Thought the mantra "father's blood is short and weak"
Another point someone raised a while ago is this is a potential excuse
> One of the most important [forms of Arkat worship] (and I've not seen
> it mentioned) is ancestor worship
applies even here, I betcha; the notional object of worship in each
case would be female descendants, particularly any Uzuz daughters
and grandaughters of Arkat in the family tree. Obviously they still
make it loudly known who the Founder's dad just happened to be, though.
In form, I think such worship is Bog Standard KL Stuff, give or take.
for the Kitori being a single tribe; it may be that both the human
clans and the trollish ones claim descent from Arkat. A common mythic
ancestor is usual for troll tribes, but not a requirement for a human one,
so how necessary this is is arguable either way.
Peter Metcalfe reckons that:
> The Uz to some extent imitate the Hooman practice of the Secret
> Society IMO. An indication of this is the 'underground city'
> which supposedly runs the cult.
Of course, it may simply be that the 'underground city' is a run-of-
the-mill Castle of Lead, cos trolls _like_ it underground, and that
it's purpose is just unknown to _humans_. But I suspect that to
some extent it is indicative of some degree of the endemic Ralios
Secret Society nonsense; as I carefully equivocated earlier, I'm
sure at least some of the Ralios Uz do this sorta thing.
> Normally for most Uz cults, the centre of power is well known to Uz [...].
> The only other cult which has an unknown power centre is Zorak Zoran
> and that is associated with Arkat.
But we do know where the power centre is: Guhan. ZZ's surely a
I think the association between ZZ and Arkat is also something that
different case -- he's too widespread to have a single centre of power,
and too unremittingly Disorderly to have any overall power structure
beyond a single Death Lord and his gang, in normal structures. (I don't
think Lord General of Death is _really_ a permanent position, living in
an underground Lead Pentagon of Blood in between manifestations, though
I'm always open to wacky elaborations of this or other theories.)
varies tremendously. (Like from about zero, to total.)
["sorcerous" aspect of Arkat is very much like a divine cult]
> Although Greg has said that is what the Cult of Black Arkat is
> like, I'm not sure that he included Arkat Kingtroll in this.
I'm not sure either, though I suspect it's what he intended. Whether
> Upon reflection, I think that the Uz Arkati of Ralios use human
Kingtroll is the right epiphet is also questionable; even the TG Arkat
rightup gives him three, of which Heroquester is the one most directly
related to the sorcerous stuff, though I doubt the cult actually _call_
themselves that. In fact, the accepted terminology for all Arkat cults
is probably more the classic Irregular Noun Phrase: "_We're_ the
one true Arkat cult; _they_ are all a bunch of traitrous heretics,
who'll be first on the spike when He returns."
> style sorcerer whereas the Uz Arkati of elsewhere (save for the
> Mistress Race) use the divinized sorcery.
This may well be true, though in Ralios there's less need for Arkat
as a "focus" of a sorcery cult at all, so (human-style) Uz sorcerers
in Ralios may pay lip-service to Arkat, or in some cases not even that.
Slainte,
Alex.
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