The English, just like the Lunars:
- - are more civilized
William Wallace - A Sartarite Patriot (and Player Character)
- - Father killed by the Lunars when he is just a boy
In Braveheart, the English lord has the right to take a new Scottish bride to his bed on her wedding night. This breeds much resentment among the young Scot husbands, as well as a few bastard English.
This got me thinking, what if the Lunars have something similar, but more distinctly 'Lunar'? I submitted this scenario kernel to MOB for _Soldiers of the Red Moon_, but since that's on indefinite hold, I'll share it here.
Obviously, all weddings in occupied Sartar have to be registered, for tax purposes, with the local Lunar magistrate.
So, unerringly, the day before her wedding, a young Sartarite bride is visited by a 7M/Deezola priestess. This woman is accompanied by a squad of Lunar soldiers, so gets access to wherever she wants.
The Lunars have imposed a law where they have the right to take the soon-to-be bride away for a day and a night. Regulations require that the bride be delivered home at dawn on the wedding day itself.
Now, the feminine-aware Lunar culture does nothing like the English do to the young women. Instead, the young Sartarite girl is taken to the Seven Mothers temple. There, she is greeted by a room full of Lunar women.
This is not an overt attempt to convert the girl to the Lunar Way. We all know the Lunars are much more subtle, insidious even, than that.
The girl is given a hot bath (almost never seen in Sartarite society), and her hair is combed and styled. Her body is powdered, perfumed, and some simple cosmetics are applied (though not to the extent seen in the Heartland, of course). The girl is gifted with a fine new dress (of the local style) and some jewelry.
The Lunar priestesses spend the hours befriending the young woman, trying to earn her confidence. They tell her what to expect from a young husband, and how a good wife needs to help guide a young man to maturity. They share with the girl some reliable, time-tested methods of persuasion. Not surprisingly, the advice given is ~not quite the same~ as that heard from the Sartarite women of the girl's clan. However, it all rings true to the young girl's ears, as men are men, wherever they are from.
On the wedding day, the young groom usually arrives to find his bride looking different, better even, than he has ever seen her. She smells good too. The most fervent anti-Lunar girls rip the dress off, shake their hair out and rub the make-up off, but they can never seem to get all the smell off themselves. The Deezola priestess is present (with a couple of soldiers), and she gifts the groom with an appropriate non-weapon item.
Now, word of this practice has gotten around. The women of the clan who have gone through it tell the men what happened, but the men can't help but suspect they're not telling everything. Sometimes the young women do or say things that the older women of the clan have _never_ done or said.
Those Sneaky Lunars
The positive-spin explanation of this practice is that the priestesses are
helping the young Sartarite girls become better women. The secrets they
share on how to interact with men are true and sincere. And, what girl
doesn't want to look her best for her husband, and their clans, on her
wedding day?
The negative-spin explanation shows how the Lunars are sewing seeds of mistrust among the Sartarite couples. Sartarite men are never allowed to actually see what is going on inside the temple, so they _can never know for sure_.
So, this ends up being a win-win-win situation for the Lunars: * With each woman that accepts the knowledge of the priestesses, Sartarite culture as a whole tilts ever-so-slightly more to the feminine side. This helps pacify the more confrontational men. * Every woman that totally rejects the teachings of the priestesses is foresaking some honest, sincere wisdom on how to keep her marriage happy and healthy. This breeds unrest in the hearth and the community. A feuding community is a bit less likely to unite in rebellion. * No matter what the women do, the men trust them ever-so-slightly less. They perceive the women as somehow 'tainted' by the experience; were they not ~different~ when they returned? They looked different, felt different, smelled different (smell being the sense of Storm/Air), and sometimes they even spoke and acted differently than the older clan women. Women who have undergone the Prima Nocta are never trusted 100%, exacerbating the natural misunderstandings between men and women of the clan. The Sartarite men hate it when they think their wives are 'acting like Lunar women.' Even if a woman hated every minute of the ordeal, and tries to banish all that was told her from her mind, the men of the clan will still suspect that there's some taint remaining.
Those crafty Lunars.
Comments please.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Some of you might remember some comic snippets that appeared in the RQCon1 booklet. These were written by Tim Beecher, a long time RQer. He also has more of the Trickster rune in him than any other person I know. He has translated the following opera stanza, which I think might be worth sharing:
Text Translation of the Praxian Opera "Argrath and Dorastor"
Chorus: Here coms Argrath, mighty Argrath!
Argrath: I am Argrath, mighty Argrath, where is my pizza?
Chorus: Pizza, Pizza, mighty Argrath!
Gbaji: Here I am, the delivery boy! Here is your pizza!
Argrath: What is this, Green Peppers and Anchovies?
I did not order this! I would have to become a troll to eat it!
Gbaji: Here is your order and you signed it!
Chorus: Argath signed for Anchovies!
Argrath: This is not my writing, it is an illusion!
Gbaji: I'm sure I have your pizza somewhere . . .
Chorus: Where is Argrath's Pizza?
Argrath: This is the last time I order from Domino's of Dorastor!
Happy President's Week,
- -DC
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #179
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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