Pesky Southerners.

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 04:36:40 +0100 (BST)


Jeff Richard writes (or more likely one suspects, had written for him):
> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
> this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

Actually, I'm fairly sure my mailer _does_ parler le MIME, so I presume either the majordomo server chews it up beyond recognition, or Jeff's own mailer is doubly associated with the Malign Computer Rune.

The real Jeff (ah, that's better!) then says:
> Mainly, the Red Goddess never pledged to destroy the Heortling god
> Orlanth. Period. The ire of the Red Goddess and her followers were
> not directed to the kingdoms of southern Peloria (rampant Orlanth
> worshippers), but against Carmania.

I think that's perfectly true, but there are now pressing reasons the Lunars to go barbarian-squishing. The "rivalry for the Middle Air" thing is part of it, I think, albeit that's couched in uncomfortably (or delighfully, according to taste) GLish terms. But more to the point is that the Red Goddess has in many ways taken on the mantle of a whole raft of Solar preconceptions, both mythologically (Rebullus Terminus isn't the god of freedom, he's a Very Naughty Boy), and pragmatically (we've _always_ made war on (assorted sets of) those nasty unwashed types in the South).

The reasons, too, for this are both practical and mythic. Firstly, lots of the Lunar Types _are_ Solar Types as well. And the Goddess herself has taken on many solar attributes, and the very fact that she manifests with her Red Mask puts her at the most Celestial stage of her Cycle. All these things lead her to Choose to make Orlanth her Enemy. Which doesn't necessarily mean she can't Unchoose later, I wouldn't think.

More prosaicly, of course, the Empire has several shamelessly Materialist reasons for wanting to annex the South (there are lots of Yasser Seirawans in the Lunar Poliburo). And if conquest is the most convenient way of doing so at present, then Orlanth, the principal god of the people they're fighting must, ipso facto, be the Bad Guy, right?

As for how to overcome the above minor obstacles to romance, I'd say a marriage between Yer Actual Orlanth(TM) and the RG would only be possible in the context of an Overall Peace Settlement. However, in the meantime, she can certainly wed aspects, heroes, and surrogates of the Big O. (either to herself, or to her own Aspects). For example, an obvious ploy would be to marry Barntar.

As Jeff says though, the other half of the equation is potentionally even more troublesome.

Slainte,
Alex.


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