Re: Kumbaya -- NOT!

From: Sergio Mascarenhas <sermasalmeida_at_mail.telepac.pt>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 18:32:33 -0000


James Frusetta:
>> Trolls, hoomans, elfs and dwarfs are all very similar. That's
>> because, yes, they are all quasi-humans.
> Hmm, poor wording on my part. Yes, they're all man-rune critters. What I
> object to is taking Wargh the Troll, stripping him of his trollishness,
> and having him live in Orlanthi town. He's now a hooman (at least
> culturally) with a big STR and SIZ. I want Wargh to be a troll, and to
> keep his distinctly trollish culture.

What I don't catch is why a troll that lives with humans will be stripped of his trollishness. It can happen, but in an RPG that's the player's fault most of the time.

> Humans can live as minorities in non-human cultures, and non-humans
> can live as minorities in human cultures. They *can* understand each
> other, IMO. [skip]
>
> But in all cases, they've given up some of their culture and adopted
parts
> of trollish culture. Great! Cool! I've nothing against it, I swear. ;)
> Until this stops being a minority and starts being the *standard*.

So whe agree in all main points.

> I want my trolls to defend their culture and heritage, not live on
> reservations thoughtfully set aside for them by the hoomans. [skip]

You're seeing things the other way 'round: whe trolls keep hoomans in our surface world reservation...
(BTW, reservations are supposed to exist to help the reserved 'defend their culture and heritage'.)

> Dan McCl(uz)key's points on this are right-on. It is _not_ impossible to
> have an elder race individual, or small group, adventure or settle in
> human lands -- or vice versa. Even up to a clan, maybe, under the right
> conditions. But large groups? Not unless they either give up huge
> amounts of their culture or the majority, ruling group is stand-offish
with
> no desire to enforce their own culture (eg, the Mongols and Rus -- or the
> OOO).
This is where we partially agree. Yes, that reasoning is very reasonable and I support it most of the time. The problem is that IMO it relys strongly on our RW experiences. Glorantha could be different. I think that we could find humans coexisting with ER and both keeping their cultures. Why? Some of the main drivers for cultural integration in human populations don't aply to human-to-ER interaction: cross-breeding; similar occupations; same life cycles; etc.
Also, population in Glorantha is sparse. Different races could live nearby with an high degree of interaction (including war, but not only war). And you may very well live with other people without giving out your culture, if you accept to give out power. Sometimes it's even better if you keep your culture: like in RW, when the dominant and the dominated ar of the same race, the dominant can prefer not to enforce their culture on you to keep the line that separates both peoples well delineated. IMO the problem is not culture, it's power.

Sergio


Powered by hypermail