In reply to your comments about my essay.
First Im sorry it upset you.
On the points you brought up.
Yes, there are bound to be many cases where people can perform Heroic actions and not be alienated from society, in fact many historic leaders have done so. Being a recognized Hero, as long as you dont challenge your peoples assumptions, is a great way to power. The difficulty is not challenging peoples assumption.
I recognize this stinks of Psychology, which youve already shown some severe animosity towards, but I cant help that. Why dont we try to think of it as Human Lore if that pill is easier to take. If youve had run-ins with baby psych majors who want to tell you all youre problems, thats rough, but its happened to most of us. Psychology and sociology are still the tools weve got for understanding and predicting human behavior. Believing we have none of the answers is just as half baked as believing we have them all.
Im sorry if I came off preachy, I often do. If you dont want social consequences in what really is just a recreational game, thats fine. If some of us do, thats our choice, you dont have to like it.
Back to the point. Yes it is perfectly reasonable to expect adventuring
heroes to be accepted in some cultures. The Orlanthi would at the very
least be tolerant. As David Dunham pointed out the Norse Vikingr was often
accepted. The adventurer was common enough to be something of the norm.
>From what Ive gathered the SFC does a great deal of excellent roleplaying
of heroism within society. The more I hear the more I think it would be
worth the drive or ferry ride to get to the game.
The object of my essay wasnt really these situations. I was trying to make the point that an individual that spends enough of their life outside of their society, particularly if that society is rigid or traditional, then that person will no longer fit in. Ive seen this happen to several friends who are second and third generation immigres. To just say that this wont happen because I dont want it to doesnt suit me.
As to being left out of the Temple Hierarchy, I entirely stick to that. No matter how fervent the Initiate/ RuneLord/ whatever, if that person has spent there life fighting the cults enemies what the are going to know how to do is fight the cults enemies. They will not know how to run a temple. The may be respected, even venerated, but they will not be put in charge.
Those WIMPS who hang around the temple have spent the time to learn how the temple functions on a day to day basis. Of course they will be the ones who run it. The heroes probably dont know or care about all the trivial details. They may well be given figurehead positions if they can be counted on to not foul that up, but they will certainly not be making the decisions. If you dont like it, stick to Storm Bull or Urain.
I hope the essay was useful or at least somewhat interesting to those of you who I haven't heard from.
Allen
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