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He ate George! [Warning, Vile]
- Thread starter Xarlen
- Start date
) had greater 'sexual freedom' than European women at the time (who generally had NONE)
Re: Keep some tums handy
I want to take small issue with the idea that a "primitive" society only practices cannibalism or that they don't advance if they do. This is not really anthropologically sound as I understand it.
There are difficulties with being a cannibal however. The rules on when you can/should eat someone else have to be quite clear, other wise trade would neighbors would be very difficult if they are concerned that you will eat them if things aren't going well...
In a similar vein, I know some ancient cultures ritually ate their own dead to absorb the wisdom of the tribe. While not quite the same thing, you could use it as an idea or actually chose to make that work. I eat my clever neighbor and gain a bonus to what ever his highest skill rank was, or maybe a temporary bonus to one of my abilities. You could almost certainly fit this into the sacrifice rules. Maybe when cannibals feast, some demon is actually stealing the energy of those souls, and so provides some small benefit to the feaster's, like a euphoria. Part of the story could be that these folks are unwittingly feeding the demon and when confronted with proof of that fact, amend their ways.
ejja_1 said:
I want to take small issue with the idea that a "primitive" society only practices cannibalism or that they don't advance if they do. This is not really anthropologically sound as I understand it.
There are difficulties with being a cannibal however. The rules on when you can/should eat someone else have to be quite clear, other wise trade would neighbors would be very difficult if they are concerned that you will eat them if things aren't going well...
In a similar vein, I know some ancient cultures ritually ate their own dead to absorb the wisdom of the tribe. While not quite the same thing, you could use it as an idea or actually chose to make that work. I eat my clever neighbor and gain a bonus to what ever his highest skill rank was, or maybe a temporary bonus to one of my abilities. You could almost certainly fit this into the sacrifice rules. Maybe when cannibals feast, some demon is actually stealing the energy of those souls, and so provides some small benefit to the feaster's, like a euphoria. Part of the story could be that these folks are unwittingly feeding the demon and when confronted with proof of that fact, amend their ways.
Zappo
Explorer
That works particularly well for mind flayers. With their whopping +8 INT, +6 WIS/CHA, humans are like animals to them. I could easily see illithids using a definition of "sentient being" that doesn't include most humanoids. No superiority complex is needed if you are objectively superior.Enforcer said:
What the...
the Jester
Legend
A couple of years ago I helped a kid I was tutoring work on a paper about cannibalism. It was very interesting.
Most societies that practiced cannibalism were either endocannibals or exocannibals (? the terminology may be wrong, but the idea's right here). An endocannibalistic society practices cannibalism within its own culture; for example, they might eat their dead to symbolically keep them alive, honoring powerful warriors, to take on the qualities of their great leaders, etc. An exocannibalistic society only practices cannibalism on members of other cultures- eating the bodies of powerful enemies to gain their strength, to defile them for the afterlife, etc. Very few cannibalistic cultures practiced both endo- and exocannibalism.
Now, if you want to justify a good-aligned cannibal, odds are he's an endocannibal, honoring his own by eating their hearts, brains, or whatever body part has mythic significance.
In my campaign I actually have a base class (the cannabix) that eats hearts to gain more stat increases than other classes. A cannabix is sort of like a chaos druid who's afraid of nature's wrath rather than a worshipper of nature. She eats hearts as sacrifices so that the powers of the sea, sky and land won't destroy her and her people. Cannabix gain a stat increase at level 2 and every four levels thereafter as a class ability, in addition to the every four levels all characters gain them at. They also cast spells a lot like a druid, though with some differences in their list. Not all cannabix are evil; however, due to the culture that spawned them, they are all chaotic.
I don't think cannibalism is innately evil; eating someone to honor them, or because it's the cultural norm, is fine in my book. Prolly not for me personally, but I've never tried it.
Most societies that practiced cannibalism were either endocannibals or exocannibals (? the terminology may be wrong, but the idea's right here). An endocannibalistic society practices cannibalism within its own culture; for example, they might eat their dead to symbolically keep them alive, honoring powerful warriors, to take on the qualities of their great leaders, etc. An exocannibalistic society only practices cannibalism on members of other cultures- eating the bodies of powerful enemies to gain their strength, to defile them for the afterlife, etc. Very few cannibalistic cultures practiced both endo- and exocannibalism.
Now, if you want to justify a good-aligned cannibal, odds are he's an endocannibal, honoring his own by eating their hearts, brains, or whatever body part has mythic significance.
In my campaign I actually have a base class (the cannabix) that eats hearts to gain more stat increases than other classes. A cannabix is sort of like a chaos druid who's afraid of nature's wrath rather than a worshipper of nature. She eats hearts as sacrifices so that the powers of the sea, sky and land won't destroy her and her people. Cannabix gain a stat increase at level 2 and every four levels thereafter as a class ability, in addition to the every four levels all characters gain them at. They also cast spells a lot like a druid, though with some differences in their list. Not all cannabix are evil; however, due to the culture that spawned them, they are all chaotic.
I don't think cannibalism is innately evil; eating someone to honor them, or because it's the cultural norm, is fine in my book. Prolly not for me personally, but I've never tried it.
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