A couple of nights ago, whilst lying abed but not asleep (I hate it when cats think 3am is the perfect time to run around at top speed), the thought came to me of a parallel for Sartar vrs Lunars that perhaps is easier to understand than the old Celt/Roman or current Viking/Assyrian or whatever it is this month: The American South and West vrs the "Civilized" Yankees and East Coasters.
In Sartar we have many of the "Movie" Western ideas: Clan feuds; bandits; lone Swordsmen; "injuns" (broos, Praxians, or Grazers); not only the right, but the obligation to carry weapons, etc. Add in them durn carpetbaggers from west of the Rio Creek and you get Cavalry coming to the rescue, crafty traders selling arms and liquor to the tribes, The "Great Red Father" in Glamour, and more! Heck, we even have our Daniel Boone, Leatherstocking and similar legends which mesh with the whole resettlement of Dragon Pass: "Wellp, it's time to move on, I kin see the smoke of our neighbor's fire...". Throw in the Daughter's Roads as railway, and Moonboat gamblers with spell matrices up their sleeves. Out in Prax you have a similar situation, with great expanses of Grassland populated by "the tribes", the lone cavalry outposts, the Wastes, little towns living in fear of the next big raid, more carpetbagging Lunars and Sartarites.
No wonder the typical "American" players like Orlanthi, it's our national heritage! The English haven't the same history, so they can appreciate the ..ahem.. peace-loving forward-looking Lunars. You know, the kind that think passing out blankets from the Malia ward at the local Teelo Norri hospital is a good way to "cure" the local inhabitants of their uncivilized behaviour; or making people pack up and move to nice resevations like the Risklands is a good use of available resources. There are probably huge mills in the interior of the empire running day and night powered by chaos, where Teelo Norri orphans have to scurry between spinning reels of yarn to replace spools and try not to add to the brilliant Scarlet color (so, you thought the Empire uses *Madder* to color their cloaks? It's the blood of innocent millworkers, my friend).
Now. I'm not advocating that all Sartari warriors wear their swords tied down for a fast draw, or talk with a southern twang, but is is another view of life in them thar hills, and with a lot more material from which to pan nuggets of story ideas: Clint Eastwood (almost any western he's done - heck, almost every *movie* he's ever done) as the quintessential Humakti, or John Wayne as Humakti or Orlanth (some of his Sheriff roles). There are many more western movies and TV shows than anything remotely related to the semi-ancient world. I mean, I *like* Herculese and Xena, but the cuurent crop of imitators (_Sinbad_, TNT's _Adventures of Robin Hood_) are really, *really* lame. For every medieval or earlier-period movie, there are probably 10 westerns.
Actually, one of my favorite sources of inspiration for scenarios is "The High Chapparel" an old 1960's television show, where you have a nice mix of Cattlemen, Indians, Mexicans (the ranch is down by the Mexican border, and The head rancher is married to the daughter of a Mexican landowner), banditos, rival cattlemen, etc. Currently "HC" is playing on the Family Channel on sundays here in the States.
Roderick Robertson
Hoping to add a little MGF
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