"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acumen of
skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acumen of skill.
2.
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you think."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
3.
Ok. I've just seen the sixth of the Lone Wolf & Cub, Kozure Okami, Babycart Assassin movies from the seventies. This one was entitled "We're In Hell, Diagoro". Pip and I have been watching most of the Lone Wolf movies over the last few weeks.
Omagi Itto is the quintessential w4 warrior, the Kogi Kashakunin - Shogun's executioner, the best swordsman in a nation of swordsmen & women. There is little magic in the Lone Wolf movies, so they're great to watch for inspiration as to what the life of a high level warrior might be like. Many of them end in a many-vs-one battle scene. In "We're In Hell, Diagoro" Itto takes on over a hundred samurai in a snowbound running battle on skis and sleds. Much of the dramatic interest stems from Itto's 'vulnerability' - his three year old son Diagoro. (There's a thematic demon/buddha duality between 'em as well, but that's heading way OT.)
If my campaign ever got to 10w3 level, I imagine it would be almost entirely
spent on the hero plane. And mostly not in battle at all. Kin and loved ones
are always vulnerable, even when heroes are not. Relationships and emotions
become your weak spots, and to give *them* up means becoming something more
(or less) then human. It's the hero theme - the price of Godhead, the burden
of herodom and its alternatives. Its the way of Harrek vs the way of Sartar,
with the way of Arkat being an indication of a third, a fourth, a fifth way.
"I had to destroy the nation in order to save it."
John
Everybody hit the ground. Everybody hit the ground.
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