Finding Orlanth

From: bethexton_at_...
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 15:49:39 -0000

Heck, don't forget to throw in the language and cultural barrier.

Lunar lieutenant, proud of his six weeks of language training in Tarsh: "Who you with dance honour?"
Local yokel covered in gaudy paints: "Finnovan." Lieutenant: "Finnagan? What he god of?" Local yokel: "He'll help us find cattle." Lieutenant, to men: "OK, saddle up, yet another of these stupid cow gods, we'll leave the buggers to dance in the cow patties."

For real world examples, look at how effective the Americans were in figuring out who the VietCong suppoerters were in Vietnam, or for that matter how much luck the british had in getting rid of the revolutionaries in their American colonies. (the latter particularly relevant when thinking of the Tarshite army in Sartar).

Also, don't forget the clan to clan variations in exactly what various gods and heroes are worshipped, and no doubt exactly what they are called. A Heortling may think it obvious that "Flashing Finnovan the Great Attacker" is the same as "Finnovan the Raider." To an outsider's ear (allowing for varying regional accents), it may not be even remotely apparent that "Furtheral finnewan y masti arowantto" is the same as "Fanvan di halter." (totally random made up words, in case that wasn't apparent).

This may sound ridiculous, but just by way of comparison, with almost no language barrier, I can never recall which British (soccer) football clubs are great first division rivals and which are only hording the coals of past glories, or for that matter which championships are which and when they are played. Throw in language issues and I admit I can't even remember what country Juventa (spelling?) is from, and have no clue which city. I'm sure that in turn I could write a _totally_ clear explanation of why although the IHL generally has a higher level of play the ice hockey teams of the NHL mostly have their affiliates in the AHL, but most likely if you weren't already a hockey fan you'd only retain a small fraction of it.

Were I to really care about European football teams no doubt I'd come to keep them all straight, but I confess that I lived in France for two years and never really did follow the football action there, despite being exposed to plenty of media coverage. Similarly I know people who have lived in Canada for over a decade and don't even know all of the teams in the NHL.

In short, most people find other people's customs of very little interest. I'm sure there are lunar scholars who can describe the details of Orlanthi worship in fine detail, and I'm sure most soldiers could basically care less ("Just tell me which ones I'm supposed to kill"). I'm sure there are some very capable military officers and civilian administrators who have a fine grasp of Sartarite culture and religion, but seldom in the history of mankind have the keen and capable been able to drag any large organization around to their way of thinking. Fazzur was doing a decent job of it, but we know what happened to him....

Sorry to rant on this.

Bryan

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