Democracy, Borist Heresy

From: TTrotsky_at_aol.com
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 12:06:42 -0400 (EDT)


Claude Manzato:
<< I was wondering: is there some place in glorantha were democratic  city-states are know to exist ? >>

    According to the Genertela book, some of the cities along the Janube river valley chose their government by free election. Evidently these must be small cities, since none of the ones specifically listed appear to be democratic, although a case might be made for Zoria (not that I believe this). Now, the Janubians are Westerners and Malkioni - who don't normally have priests and acolytes as such to be elected, although adminsitrative positions would be fine. But since many of the cities follow some form of the Stygian Heresy, I don't see why such a cult structure couldn't be worked in. At the very least the idea seems to provide for MGF.

    My guess is such a city would tend to incorporate some Orlanthi myths into its particular heresy, since the Orlanthi have a tradition for democracy. In fact, I'd add that some of the cities in Sartar and other Orlanthi lands would have some form of democracy IMO, although this obviously wouldn't extend to cult positions. Being a Westernised city on a big trade route, perhaps Issaries would be the ruling cult - they might call him a Saint, though.

    While we're on the subject of Westerners and their religion, I was reading the Splintered Sects section of Loren Miller's web page recently and noticed that the Borists don't get a write up, while at least one smaller sect (the Galvosti) does. Since I gather the write-ups come from How The West Was One, I imagine this is due to the perfectly good reason that there weren't any Borist PCs in this game. Fair enough, but I'd like to plumb the Digest's collective wisdom to fill in this gap in our knowledge.

     Personally, I imagine they're a bit like the Galvosti in their general outlook re. class structure etc., but one thing I noticed was that all the other sects seem to think they're a bunch of chaotics. I was under the impression that the reason they allowed chaos to be tapped is precisely because they don't like it, and hence think Malkion's anti-tapping proscription doesn't apply. Is this just a case of the other sects misunderstanding/propagandising against the Borists? Or a case of _me_ misunderstanding them? Or has their association with captured chaotic thingies and frequent tapping of the same corrupted them with chaos?

     Oh, and where would they be found? Safelster, obviously, but any particular cities? Or do they live as minorities among other groups, or even in secret? If so, it might pose some interesting questions on class structure if they believe it's rigid/open and the rulers of the city believe the opposite.

    Thoughts, anyone?  

Forward, the glorious Red Army!

     Trotsky


Powered by hypermail