The Red Goddess' Quest

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 06 Aug 96 03:31:42 EDT


(Hi, Sherri & Boris!)

Dave Cake confuses himself:

> And according to certain theories, the original Red Goddess Quest had
> as a major aim the overthrow/subversion of the Emperor, by bringing
> forth his Other...

That was the Ritual of the Seven Mothers (1220 ST) which brought the Red Goddess back into the world, not her own GodQuest, which commenced some years later and was an entirely different kettle of fish. Bringing it in now just muddies the waters.

I know from Greg's recent work that the events of the Seven Mothers' rebirth of the Goddess are indeed reenacted at Torang each year, with some quite amazing ceremonies (a willing sacrifice of noble Carmanian volunteers when the troops are slain by the Young Elementals, frex). I would assume they are also reenacted on a smaller scale throughout the Empire, as the thought of dressing little kiddies up in animal costumes for a singalong has a great appeal to me (the Lunar Nativity Play). But I seriously doubt they have a new and different godling manifest at every site, every year.

Sure, redoing *any* religious ritual with a perverted intent is Blasphemy, while reading the curses against the Evil Emperor using a picture of Moonson as a prop would be High Treason. And this is what the White Moonies are up to, if they dare to make such an attempt. Lucky the Black Army has its vigilant agents and informers everywhere...

I follow and agree with most of what David is saying, but I think these clarifications are needed. We're not just talking about farting around in an airy-fairy manner on the Hero Plane trying to pretend the Lunar Empire doesn't exist: we're talking about a subversive conspiracy against the State.

> The Red Goddess Quest pattern can be reenacted in slightly different
> ways, as can a Light Bringers Quest.

Not so many ways: it's a quarter as old and *far* better documented. There aren't likely to be "local variants" of the Red Goddess' Quest or Seven Mothers' Ritual, as there are with the Lightbringers. Certainly, you can hold a perverse parody of Lunar Worship using inappropriate persons in key ritual positions, or you can strike off on your own (a la Experimental HeroQuesting) once you've started off down the correct path... but none of this is going to make the Lunar Empire change overnight (or, indeed, retrospectively!). People who say "Moonson is the Evil Emperor" on the Hero Plane have already got sufficient evidence to prove he is in the mundane world, so they are not, in fact, changing a single thing, or intending to: they are swearing at a man they dislike, and putting some magical "oomph" behind it. Maybe this is what gives the Red Emperor his bowel problems ("There appears to be some resistance within the Body of State, your Serenity: I believe Grand Master Orsorkhon the Cenobite may be more help than Doctor Ko-Lon and his latest apparatus").



Nick

Powered by hypermail