> I think everyone who wants to and trains to do so should
> effectively have access to some martial arts magic useful for butt-kicking
> purposes.
The term 'magic' is problematic here. All martial arts should imply a degree of martial capability though, yes, otherwise they're ceased to be such in any real sense. (In what sense is tai chi a martial art, he wondered, rhetorically.) One could quibble too with 'useful', vis a vis any number of Zen archer parables, etc.
> But I certainly agree that in some cases its philosophically a
> 'side effect', and that many others obtain their martial arts powers in
> ways that could be labelled highly mistaken, sinful, error-prone, or any
> other epithets the more orthodox choose to throw at them.
Das raight. I'm happy for these to exist in vast profusion, but their very multiplicity means they're problematic to characterise, and I'm wary of beginning to do so before the more 'characteristic' arts are better understood.
> >I haven't said you can't have mystic bad guys; I haven't said you
> >can't have non-mystic martial arts; I have said non-mystical is
> >necessarily bad.
Oops, pesky typo: I meant to say _haven't_ said... Sorry about that.
The ultimate purpose of Kralorela is at least notionally mystical in nature, but a large slice of 'the end justifies the means' clearly very often applies. The ordinary Kralori foot soldier is not one jot more mystically elevated than a Dara Happan Tommy or an Orlanthi Hans, but the state approves of their use because it's just so darn handy. Just as the British Empire approved of the use of child chimney sweeps -- which doesn't mean you'd want to stick _your_ child up a chimney, or have witty drawing room banter with one leaving sooty footprints on your Afghan rug.
> leaving room for touching recognitions of the nobility of the
> deluded uncivilised and so forth.
Not a hechuvalotta room, IMO. What uncivilised peoples might provoke such a reaction in the typical Kralori?
Cheers,
Alex.
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #393
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