Zorak Zoran; onslaught

From: ANDOVER_at_delphi.com
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 18:14:43 -0500 (EST)


The wedding scenario in Sum County refers to Argan Argar as one of the husbands of Ernalda, he is the God whom the ogre character names; rather amusingly, in our game a PC who was an Argan Argar worshipper from Esrolia actually won the contest, rather to everyone's astonishment (he was not a particularly powerful character). So my guess, given the history of the area is that Argan Argar was meant, not old ZZ top himself. As for remembering Onslaught instead of an "honorable" Humakti, Stephen Jay Gould in one of his most recent books points out the paradox that humans, so far from being particularly violent, treat each other better in interactions than the vast majority of other mammalian species observed. But that the impact of one bad interaction is so much greater than that of thousands of pleasant ones, so the unpleasant reality is that history is made by the unusual, not the usual (the old definition of news!). He then makes a parallel with evolution, pointing out that his theory of punctuated equilibrium means that millions of years of continuity of most species are interrupted by brief violent periods of mass extinctions, followed by rapid evolution. So that from the point of view of his field, the unfortunate fact is that one disaster outweighs many successes! Or one Arkat, by the time he is finished, can outdo the positive achievements of generations of peace! Jim Chapin

Powered by hypermail