Childbirth, Vision and Fairness

From: Josh Shaw <joshaw_at_slip.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 11:26:31 -0700


At 12:02 PM 9/13/96 -0400, Paul2.Harmaty wrote:

>I have terrible eyesight and I am not alone. Poor vision is not tied to a
>character's sex. Don't we assume that all our character's have perfect
vision? >I certainly do! Why complicate my life or my players' lives by having some of >them arbitrarily have poor vision? Wouldn't that add drama? Henrik can't use a >bow, he's nearly blind past 10 yards! There's some real life drama we find easy
>to live without.

But they both have the same easy answer: "Modern Medicine"

In the dim past of Glorantha, perhaps right after the dawn, women had to suffer horribly in childbirth and many of them died. Likewise, many people were born with poor eyesight, "diabetes" (Someone else can come up with a proper Gloranthan name for it) and other sad conditions.

However, through continual heroquesting, in the modern world, these problems have been solved. Every village midwife knows the spells for easing labor and preventing complications, though in some cases, either with severe complications or attacks by spirits and professional healer or shaman may have to be called in to consult. Likewise, problems in sight or health are usually diagnosed early in a childs life and, being well understood, pose no significant problems for the village healer. Again, there are occasional situations where for some reason medical intervention fails or conditions caused by curses to strong for the local healer to break, but these are fortunately rare. Only the very poorest of the poor (and some professional beggars) are unable to take advantage of these services.

Thus the famous expression: "Better Living Through Heroquesting"

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