Wind-breaker, God Forgot, Combat Models, Dronar symbol

From: ian (i.) gorlick <"ian>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 18:19:00 -0500


MOB about Wind-breaker and Flashman:
Yes you are absolutely correct about He-Who-Rides-So-Fast-He-Shatters-The- Wind-With-His-Passage being inspired by "Flashman and the Redskins". I have no shame about borrowing inspiration from literature. (You may have noticed a small homage to Shakespeare's "MacBeth" in the working out of the curse.)

I happen to be a big fan of Flashman and second your recommendation. I am waiting to hear about Flashy's involvment in the Northwest Rebellion. Surely GMF can't pass up another opportunity for Flashy to team up with Garnet Wolsey?

Mike Cule about God Forgot:
I've got rather a different take on God Forgot. The Forgotten were theists back in the God Time, but their god (whose name is no longer remembered) did not return when the God's Wars were ended and Time began. This caused them to look for other paths. They tried making gods (they participated in the creation of Nysalor and Zistor) but both of these passed away. They tried the Brithini way, but it was sterile and hopeless. Especially after the Machine Wars, when so many casualties could not be brought back to life, the Brithini way was seen to only postpone death; it offered no lasting hope.

They now believe that all things must die. Even gods die eventually, so there is no value in tying yourself to them. Even the Invisible God will die eventually, so there is no point in trying to enter Solace. They have taken this bleak outlook and inverted it to make it hopefull. They now seek to die totally, to escape from the universe, to achieve complete non-existance and thus freedom. The mental discipline needed to achieve this takes a long time to develop. Many won't make it in a lifetime, but the Forgotten believe that these will be reincarnated and given another chance as long as their soul is not trapped by some god. (Any similarities to Hinduism or Buddhism are entirely deliberate.)

Their society is very similar to Brithini. They have adopted Brithini caste structures and rituals. They are not as scrupulous about the rituals as the Brithini so they do age, but more slowly than other mortals. They are less scrupulous because they do not fear death as much as the Brithini and they accept that it will eventually find them anyway no matter how careful they are.

Mike Dawson on SCA as a model for combat: One other key factor missing from SCA combat is the morale problem. When your SCA unit has its formation shattered, people don't panic and run the way ancient and medieval units would. Why? Because there is no real penalty for dying. You stand and die gloriously because you have nothing really to fear. The SCA is only a game, just like RQ.

Nick Brooke about Dronar symbols:
While I can't dispute that the plough is an appropriate symbol for the Dronar, I do feel that it is rather too inconvenient to be commonly used in many rituals. Might I suggest that some other characteristic farm implements might be more appropriate such as a scythe, a flail, a shovel, a hoe, etc. Many of these could also be used in some fashion to scourge a miscreant.


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