Vast Slave farms in the Lunar empire? Where??????? The Lunar empire is, as has been well thrashed out on the digest, not a slave-type economy. Slavery exists, undoubtedly, but the only major difference between lunar slavery and Orlanthi thralldom is that the children of slaves are not automatically free. The majority of the farming in the Pelorian basin is done by the Lodrili who are most definitely not slaves - the spirit of rebellion sees to that.
I can only suggest to Chris Bell (aka remster) that he get hold of TFS, GRAY and the etekosiad to get at least some idea of the complexity of the pelorian/lunar region and cultures and how little they are actually defined by their interactions with an obscure barbarian god to the south. I would also urge him to play in one of the SFC orlanthi LARPS and see if he still thinks that the Orlanthi are "chaotic good" <urg>.
The Remster also says:
> Oh, BTW, Deities can't fiddle with the universe, directly, anymore.
> It's forbidden by the Compromise!
Then I notice that he recognises that other cultures don't believe in the compromise - but they're just wrong.
This in a nutshell is a large part of the debate. The "compromise" is a cultural belief of some Orlanthi to explain the fact that thier gods don't exhibit free will. The other cultures have other ways of explaining it that have nothing to do with the compromise, yet he insits that only the Orlanthi view is correct. Thus all other cultures, such as the Kraloreli, who have records dating to before the orlanthi "dawn" really don't know what is going on - the interactions with the divine in thier culture are determined by the beliefs of an obscure barbarian culture with no written records and whose culture and worship structure (and indeed myths) have changed hugely in the course of the last thousand years.
If you don't believe me tell me how the Theyelan culture of the EWF (and the cult of Orlanth Dragonfriend, etc) can be reconciled with 1600's Sartarite beliefs. The whole cult of Orlanth Rex was invented by Harmast frex.
As to your belief that the majority of the digest are lunar symps I suggest you look at the various numbers who post from a pro-orlanthi stance vs those who are willing to credit the lunars as anything other than the evil empire and you'll find that the orlanthi viewpoint predominates.
All for now,
Yak
- --
Dave Pearton
pearton_at_u.washington.edu
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Down he sank in a chair-ran his hands through his hair- +
And chanted in mimsiest tones +
Words whose utter inanity proved his insanity, +
While he rattled a couple of bones. +
+
"The Hunting of the Snark" Lewis Carroll +
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End of Glorantha Digest V4 #498
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