…World pillar, in ladder form, lightning sprite people. Can't tell what the left glyph might be. Looks like another stylized person, on the right of the ladder; almost dagger like.
… Anon purely speculating, here. At the latter stages of famine (no crops, wilds game. nothing left). 'Royalty' and priests eat first (hierarchical shit). Conditions improve, and they are left addicted to human flesh and other parts.
Also a means of coercing a populace, through fear and superstitions, to be culled when numbers run a bit high for the king's liking. Becomes a seasonal cycle, thus ritual.