> At first I was bemused and chagrined to think that it looked like
> Stafford et al appear to be deliberately and po-facedly doing an
> almost 180 degree turn on what has been way-cool, MGFly resonant
> GAG in this area. But now I see (reading between the lines) what
> we're getting is just the Official Lunar Empire Spin on how success-
> ive Emperors are created etc., and there's an underlying Gloranthan
> reality which is to be concealed in the initial HW releases, but
> that we old-timers already know and love. Or at least, that's what
> I'm going to believe, until explicitly shown otherwise.
And Trotsky wrote:
> I'm with MOB; I'll read the information on this topic in SGU as if its
> just the official political spin on how events transpire rather than an
> actual description of what's going on. Even if I'm not intended to ;-)
Startlingly, I'm with MOB and Trotsky on this one. But I would still prefer *not* to have to ignore and belittle the "official version", which is why I would still like Martin to reconsider his irritating extremist position.
(It is possible that Martin's position is less reductionist than it appears from his public posts. However, given the number of people who have read it the same way, I am afraid that *even if* Martin is trying to retain some elements of diversity and entertainment in his presentation of the Red Emperor's nature and the succession crises this creates, he is not presenting this in such a way that anyone else can see what he's getting at. If I were an author being consistently "misunderstood" by my readers, I would be worrying rather more about what I had written).
Given the very nature of the Red Emperor's personality, so ably described by Alex in v7#566, the idea that at any time in Peloria there is only one person who thinks that he's the "real" Red Emperor (and is thought to be the "real" Red Emperor by his fellow Pelorians) is unnecessarily limiting.
The idea that this creates no confusion (because every Pelorian has access to an infallible "Detect True Moonson" spell, or whatever the preferred solution is today) is risible.
And the idea that succession wars are fought between the One Real Lunar Candidate and a bunch of reactionary regional "traitors" (backing the Paradisal Aviator of Rinliddi, the Shah of Carmania, the Emperor of Dara Happa, or whoever else, against the Big Red Cheese) is obviously less fun than the alternative. How anyone can prefer it, defeats me.
PS: perhaps Trotsky should be told -- arguing from "Life of Moonson" may be counterproductive (Martin didn't enjoy our last freeform much, apparently because he wasn't allowed to kill off all the other players). Maybe we should stick to proper Gloranthan arguments instead.
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Nick
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End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #570
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