From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Mon, 13 Jun 1994, part 5 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) Subject: Re: Hrestoli and dissent Message-ID: <199406130627.OAA02604@quenda.cs.uwa.oz.au> Date: 13 Jun 94 06:28:52 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4527 Bryan Maloney gives us a relatively benign view of how the Loskalmi suppress dissent, how they do all they can to avoid actually taking violent action. I am sorry, but in my view of the Hrestoli things are a bit more serious. Think of how heretics where treated in Europe. Perhaps the lord will attempt to educate the people. If he has any sense at all (remembering that Hrestoli lords are experts at matters of violence, and must have proved their holiness to the Church hierarchy), he starts educating the people by removing the source of the poison. If a group of peasants started worshipping Ernalda, they might get teaching and rebukes from the wizards initially. But I suspect any actual priestess of Ernalda that attempted to convert the Loskalmi populace would be considered a source of the poison, and arrested straight away. I feel that they could well be treated as the Catholic Churhc treated those 'ordained in the heresy' when dealing with heretics - kill them out of hand. The process described (rebuking the heresy, making it illegal, and then arresting the ringleaders, asking them to recant, and executing them only if they do not recant) is very similar to how the Inquisition worked. In theory it is relatively benign, but in practice it can unleash savage violence. After all, the big problem with the rebuke and teach idea is that most heretics know that they are acting against the church from the start, they are not confused, they are opposed. So the path from the beginning of the process to the burning the heretics part can be pretty quick. >Thus, dissent is tolerated in Loskalm, so long as it does not go too far. >All are permitted to be in error, until they have been properly corrected. In other words genuine dissent is NOT tolerated, but a brief flirtation with the wrong ideas is tolerated with relatively minor reprisals (say, making it harder to be promoted to the next caste). When it comes right down to it, you agree with the bishops or you burn. It is just a question of how many opportunities to recant they give you. >(Gee, this is pretty much how nearly ALL human societies work, no? It's all >just a matter of how much "error" a particular society will tolerate in >particular areas. For USA society, substitute "underage sex" for "religion" >to get a similar response. For Liberal USA society, substitute "anything that >isn't politically correct" for "religion".) Well, the USA always seems mighty proud of its free speech. While there are a few activities that are not allowed, advocating change to the system is supposed to be free of legal retribution. I suspect Loskalm (if it is anything like various religious states in history) is not like this. And get real, Liberal USA might carp and winge, maybe even fire you or take away your government funding, but the chances that they will torture you, and then set fire to you (a la the Inquisition) are relatively slim :-) Cheers Dave Cake --------------------- From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK Subject: Tekumel Digest Message-ID: <9406130657.AA11221@Sun.COM> Date: 13 Jun 94 06:59:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4528 Hi Someone asked about the Tekumel Digest. 1) It is archived at wings.micro.umn.edu in the directory /pub/tekumel/Digests There are currently issues up to 54 there, but there may be some extra ones. 2) If you want to subscribe try mailing tekumel-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu I have tried this bit out so I don't know if it works. My impression about the Tekumel digest is that while not yet dead it is suffering from a terminally low metabolic rate! Good Luck - Lewis --------------------- From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK Subject: RQ Adventures Message-ID: <9406130700.AA11411@Sun.COM> Date: 13 Jun 94 07:03:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4529 Someone --------------------- From: JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK Subject: RQ Adventures Message-ID: <9406130707.AA11756@Sun.COM> Date: 13 Jun 94 07:10:00 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4530 Hi Someone wanted to know about RQ Adventures. Ingo Tschenke (have I spelt that right?) is now the European distributorJoerg (who does Free INT with him) advertised this here a while ago so either you were not on the digest then or you have not been paying attention. Ingo currently has issues 1 to 3 (THEY ARE IN ENGLISH) and he was offering a deal of 17 pounds for 5 issues if you pay him English cash at Convulsion. This is a nice idea because it cuts out the Money Changers TWICE! And, we all know what God thinks of Money Changers. I recommend contacting him before he comes over in order to reserve your copies and to check that the deal is still on. Lewis ---------------------