Re: Hero Wars, Orlanthi Sexism, and the solution...

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 17:53:46 GMT


Rick Meints:
> To help set the record straight, Hero Wars does (last time I read the draft)
> specifically state that the special requirement for joing the cult of Orlanth

Well, at the risk of sounding like Eric Rowe (perish the thought) what some or other Hero Wars draft says is not necessarily what 'Hero Wars' will say. Citing non-public draft documents as being in any way indicative of present or future Greggisms seems to me to be muddifying, not clarifying things.

> 1. MAKE EXCEPTIONS.
> Greg is the first one to point out that the word "All" in Orlanthi
> society means only 80 percent compliance. Live gloriously in the 20
> percent minority.

Well, it's 15% -- a figure that always sticks in my mind, as it makes me wonder afrash each time I hear it as to why Greg doesn't just say "1 in 7". Though of course it's simply a sweeping generalisation about sweeping generalisations, so the exact percentage is definitely in the Vic Reeves school of statistics. (67% of them are made up on the spot.)

But that nit aside, I couldn't agree with you more. When one sees assertions on the Digest about what "Orlanthi" are like (and I mean from _any_ source, be it ever so humble, or like, valorised to the max, man) which strike one as objectionable, campaign-wrecking, or otherwise Wrong, it's most useful IMO to regard that as yet more evidence of how strange and unacceptable the practices of [that clan yonder] are, and why we've feuded with them nigh on these two centuries gone, or some other such construction upon the majority/minority view. Better than determining which is the Correct view by debate unto death, appeals to authority, etc -- not less likely, given human and Digest nature, but better in some hypothetically utilitarist sense. Much the same is true about other bits of Glorantha, but in the case of the Orlanthi we have a ready-made Gloranthan basis for such an approach, aside from the meta-principle of making as much use of available resources as practicable.

Cheers,
Alex.


End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #160


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