Re: Buffalo, spirits, sorcerers

From: Sandy Petersen <sandyp_at_idgecko.idsoftware.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 96 10:47:31 -0500

Henk Langeveld writes:
<< While the natives *knew* the buffalo intimately, and depended on
<<it for their life, the white hunters with their rifles knew far
<<better how to kill the animals. >>

        This is actually not true. The natives were just as able to kill the buffalo as the white men, and in fact were better at it once they got horses, and sometimes they killed buffalo in vast numbers.

        HOWEVER, the plains indians also knew that they depended on the buffalo to survive, and so consciously avoided overhunting. This doesn't mean they're not efficient killers.

        The reason the white men killed so many more buffalo was twofold:

1. the buffalo weren't important to the white man's survival.
2. killing the buffalo weakened the plains indians, who opposed the white man's push westward.
3. there were a lot more white men killing the buffalo than there were indians.

        The same situation doesn't apply to sorcerers. Sure, shamans depend on the spirits to survive, and if the spirits went away the shamans would too, but that point is not reached anywhere in Glorantha that matters. In addition, there aren't a "lot more sorcerers" hunting down spirits than there are Indians. And the sorcerers' magic is not technically superior to the shamans', just different. In fact, the shaman is nigh-invulnerable to the sorcerer's magic in a most annoying manner.

        The victories of the West over primitives in Glorantha aren't because of their magic, but because of their drill and organization.

Sandy P.

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