Re: Glorantha Digest V2 #358

From: Erik Sieurin <BV9521_at_utb.hb.se>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 16:21:57 +0100


I wrote:
> > The Poor Westerners All Are Bastards, Their Faith A Sham, Their
> > Society A Disgrace.

And Nick Brooke (among others) answered:
> You may find this hard to believe, but I found many aspects of the Western
> societies I was describing admirable. It's *because* I did my best to sound
> happy and optimistic about everything in the sect writeups that I spend time
> pointing out the drawbacks on the Digest (e.g. with the Castle Coast, who most
> people have forgotten), and had to add a section on internal tensions to the
> Tales #13 Loskalmi Idealist piece (in the misc. notes at the end).
I *do* find it hard to believe :-). To rephrase my statement, mostly the Westerners are "hypocrits", they oppress the common people (from a 20th century Western RW viewpoint - very much true, but so is it for MOST other Gloranthan cultures), they cannot keep their faith because who could really believe in such a god so lets make them more pseudo-polytheistic folks, and of course the upper classes are cynical bastards which do not believe in everything. Personally I'm perfectly convinced that Theoblanc the Pious is so ancient just because he IS Pious. That talk about Immortality spells is just so much balderdash. I mean, especially if your piety includes taking care of your body (vegetarianism, no strong passions, sparse alcohol....)...

Same thing with this sorcery bit; oh yeah, the sorcerers "exploit" the otherworld, they "enslave" their Other Self, they are Bad, of course, because they're borrowed from the Real World's Western ideologies, and you know how fashionable it is to spit on _them_. Sorcery (or wizardry) is working with the forces of nature, to use the possibilities in nature, instead of corrupting man's soul by involvement with horrid non-human spiritual forces.

(Western wizardry view of theistic gods: stop this christian metaphor about the Devil and pagan frippery a bit and be a little anachronistic: think of Valind the Windwalker, Xentha The Thing That Should Not Be, Aldrya The Great Tree Of The Woods With A Thousand Saplings, etc. Not even mention that blasphemous chaos goddess, The Crawling Chaos, The Soul And Messenger Of The Outer Gods, The Red Woman.)
<. But, that
> said, you could find plenty of:
>
> > The apologists of idealistic Loskalm, pragmatic and pious Sehsnela,
> > the chivalrous Castle Coast, the wise Brithni, the mystically
> > insightful Stygians,

That's my point - there are not too many of them around. The apologists, I mean.

> Just don't expect such folk to be starting the Hero Wars: that's a job for the
> narrow-minded bigots of Loskalm, the power-grasping brutes of Seshnela, the
> lunatic dreamers of the Castle Coast, the sinister Brithini, or the turbulent,
> untrustworthy Stygians. ;-)

You forgot the Vadeli.... the Vadeli are presented as so mind-numbingly evil that not even Michael Raateroova dared accusing me of being one in his little letter a month ago, where he included most other cosmopolitan Gloranthan accusations :-)

Andrew Behan:
> Familiarity breeds contempt.

Probably, yes.
There oughta be more than the Christian root cellar to take from. Since I only lull around in Dragon Pass, except for a short trip to Esrolia and the dealings there, there have not been that many Malkioni around in Real Gaming as opposed to talking on Arachne Solaras web. Where they have been, I have tried to put in as many other influences as possible. If the Western Sailors my players met in Esrolia was a carbon-copy of anything, it was probably Cliche (but in no way nasty) Moslem as apt to swearing by Malkion's Beard as by Hrestol's Wounds, as apt to begin stories with "It is said - but only the Creator is all-knowing " as to making the Sign of the Triangle. Mixing stolen stuff is no new thing in Glorantha (Orlanthi as Celts+Vikings+Amerinds) so why not?
I once in a strange fit of misdirected humour tried to rewrite the "What my Father told me" for the Western Knight by changing all references of a RW European nature to Indian - talking about "Rajahs" instead of Lords, "Brahmins" instead of Wizards etc, but it failed due to my ignorance of Indian matters. But the piece of prince Hrestol meditating under the fig tree was amusing....

Ah bosh. It is only minor trouble regarding a minor aspect of something that is meant to be done in spare time for fun. What the heck.

Erik the Whyning (I like that appelation!)


End of Glorantha Digest V2 #362


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