Orlanthi Justice

[Martin]

In Orlanthi culture is cannibalism seen as a  capital crime? If not what is the punishment?

What is the exact nature of what is considered to be criminal...is unwitting cannilbalism the same as intended?

If we accept the definition of: Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings.

Then is it cannibalism for one sentient race to eat one of their own ?

What about if a human knowingly or accidentally eats the flesh of a sentient being...is that cannibalism?

[metcalph]

45 minutes ago, Martin said:

Then is it cannibalism for one sentient race to eat one of their own ?

Trolls and Elves have been described as cannibals.  The trolls practice funerary cannibalism and the Sons of Kargg must regularly devour a relative.  Elves were described as vegetarian cannibals as far back as cults of prax in the context of Food Song (Cult Compendium p193( but bit's not clear whether they are cannibals because they are plants eating plants or that they see nothing wrong with the eating of the flesh of sentient plants (elves, runners, pixies etc).

There is a widely held fan theory (based on Shadows in the Borderlands) that eating human flesh is chaotic and eventually turns the eater into an Ogre.  There's a number of problems with this and the Coming Storm has a more mythically pleasing explanation of how Ogres come to be.

The Heortlings have myth (KoS p76) of the Hidden Kings whose last hunger caused the people to hide.   Heort eventually kills the monsters (presumably because they were shapeshifting) and the people live in settlements once again.  So they would believe cannibalism to be bad.  

Within the context of Orlanthi law, cannibalism is not a capital crime.  However secret murder is.  If the cannibal secretly preys on his fellow humans, then he can be put to death for secret murder as opposed to the consumption of human flesh.  If a cannibal openly preys on his fellow humans then he may not be committing a crime (although people would still find his actions repulsive).  He can however be openly killed and the only sanction would be the attitudes of the cannibal's kin (if any).

45 minutes ago, Martin said:

What about if a human knowingly or accidentally eats the flesh of a sentient being...is that cannibalism?

Better still.  A human eats the flesh of a herd man.  The Praxians say this is not cannibalism.  Everybody else have the kneejerk reaction that it is.  

 

 

[Darius West]

metcalph has the right of it imo.

[soltakss]

On 11/3/2016 at 9:05 AM, Martin said:

In Orlanthi culture is cannibalism seen as a  capital crime? If not what is the punishment?

It is definitely seen as a crime. However, Orlanthi law is often about interpretation.

Someone who deliberately stalks and kills another in order to eat them would be treated differently to someone who eats a dead comrade during a great famine.

What is the exact nature of what is considered to be criminal...is unwitting cannilbalism the same as intended?

Again, it depends.

Intent is probably the key. If you eat human flesh thinking it was pork, for example, then you are technically guilty of cannibalism but were not aware of the fact.

In Irish mythology, Cú Chulainn broke a geas by unwittingly eating the flesh of a dog and this killed him. I suppose it is the GM's decision whether to punish someone for doing something unwittingly/unknowingly.

 

If we accept the definition of: Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings.

Then is it cannibalism for one sentient race to eat one of their own ?

Yes, that would be cannibalism.

Whether it would be a crime or not depends on the situation.

As Peter has pointed out, trolls definitely practise cannibalism as a cultural requirement and elves are described as cannibals for eating plants (something I have never agreed with, I am a mammal and I eat mammals, does that make me a cannibal?)

Ogres eat the flesh of humans. As ogres are human that makes them cannibals, but they would argue that they are eating the flesh of an inferior species.

Ghouls eat the flesh of humans, but they are not human, so is this cannibalism?

 

What about if a human knowingly or accidentally eats the flesh of a sentient being...is that cannibalism?

I don't think so.

Some people might say that all Man-Rune species are treated as one, so a troll eating an elf or a human eating a duck would be cannibalism, but I wouldn't agree.

There is probably a taboo on eating a sentient creature anyway, as we normally make a difference between animals and sentients.

What about eating an awakened bison or a naturally intelligent fish? That is the eating of sentient creatures and is also the eating of normal food.