<paragraph 1>
>Yes Mormons and Buddhists don't try and replace goverments.
>They just clutter up your doorstep. I used to be Mormon lay member
>when I came back from the states.
>
<paragraph 2>
>If you don't see the Empire is bad in a Orlanthi based Dragon Pass
>then what have you got. I suppose the Pc could always wander the
>country preaching the good word of the moon handing out flowers.
<the paragraph indicators are mine, for EZ reference>
Please avoid making inflammatory blanket statements like in paragraph 1. First of all, I have *never* had Buddists "clutter up" my doorstep. Never. AFAIK, Buddists proselytize about as much as Jews, i.e., not at all. Secondly, I live in a Mormon rich area (near Washington DC, with the Mormon Temple (the huge castle-like structure with the gold spires you can see from the Capitol Beltway, near the Conneticut Ave. exit on the MD side) quite literally dominating the central view looking off my front porch (it's quite pretty, really, especially at night when they light it up). Many of my neighbors are Mormon, and I have found, without exception, that they are genuinly nice, friendly people who also don't proselytize particularly a lot (the ones who are on Church Missions are the ones whose job it is to spread the gospel). Even the ones who do respect the fact that I'm Jewish (and intend to stay so), and wish me well without pushing any further. Sorry your experience didn't go as well, but like any religion, I suppose it isn't for everyone. I get my fill of RW religious flamewars in rec.games.frp.misc, so I'd rather not see any erupt here.
Flamebait like in paragraph 2, OTOH, is perfectly alright by me. I disagree with your analysis, however. Certain PCs (Sartarite Orlanthi, frex) are pretty much going to hate the Lunar Empire, no matter what. As a GM, they should then be played up as villians in that case - whatever they do will be seen as evil anyway. Hell, I have a hard time liking the Lunars myself - I played a Telmor from the Ormsgone Valley for 3 years; the Lunars did terrible things to tribal folk like me (my tribe had basically been driven to Ormsgone by Lunar expansion, IIRC). Of course, many of the "good guys" - particularly rabid Storm Bulls, frex - had a hard time accepting me as well ("he's a shape changer, but I don't SMELL any Chaos on him ..." <looks thoughtfully at huge axe he's wielding> "...but I haven't killed any Chaos in two whole days..."). The Duck in my current game is having similar problems. In any event, I believe that, for someone's actions to be understood, you can't (at first) think of them as evil. If your Lunar POV is "we subjugate less civilized people because it's great to be evil," I'd have a hard time believing their motivations (I studied acting for several years - can you tell?). If, OTOH, your Lunars' basic POV was, "We must strive to expand civilization throughout the world. Whole cultures will be either assimilated or swept aside in the process, but that is inevitable. The work we do is great, and someday all Glorantha will see our greatness," then I could see their /raison d'etre/. I'd probably even think that it was evil myself (and certainly would if I were a member of a culture in the process of being "assimilated or swept aside"). Hell, even the Empire (boo, hiss!) in Star Wars didn't think of itself as evil - they only destroyed Alderaan as a demonstration of the Death Star's power (which is an echo of one of the reasons the US had for using it's entire nuclear arsenal on Japan at the end of WW II. After long and careful consideration of the issue, I cannot conclude that Truman et al were "evil" in doing so, even though I have a fundamental problem dealing with nuclear weapons. YMMV).
Keep in mind, this is different from the "not evil, just misunderstood" argument many people have used defending the Lunar Empire. I firmly believe that you *can* completely understand someone's behavior, and still come to the conclusion that it is evil. Understanding someone's behavior is a mostly cognitive exercise, judging its moral implications is a different process.
robert
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