What follows is my friend Chris Gidlow's explanation of why the Soviet
analogy for the Lunar Empire, used in moderation, can be a Good Thing:
THE SOVIET ANALOGY
First, and I think everyone agrees with this, the Lunar Empire is of itself.
There has never been a culture like this in our world, and no-one intends (I
hope) to diminish it by making it a clone of a Real World culture.
I chose my analogies according to context. In "Tarsh War" it is seen as the
British Empire with late Roman trappings (the pictures of the Troops are
pictures of individual regiments, and I do not wish to suggest that all
Lunar troops look like late Romans. See Moon Runners illo in Tales #17 for a
completely different regiment of Peltasts). In "Revolt in the Redlands", the
Lunars are Americans of the Nineteenth Century, in "Citizens" early imperial
Romans, in "Hunt for Red Storm Season" Soviets. I just take a paradigm that
fits the game I am writing to squeeze out MGF.
The Soviet analogy works on several levels. First, it is a humorous
recognition of one of the (probably subconscious) influences on Dragon Pass.
The rugged individualists fighting against the aggressive Red Empire. It
seems pretty obvious where that idea was coming from (we are talking late
sixties/early seventies here!).
Unlike the Americans, a lot of us Brits feel that the Evil Empire of the
USSR was a construct as much of American paranoia as of reality. And
Socialism is not a dirty word here. I have voted socialist all my life and
intend to carry on doing so.
But why I think a lot of us Brits sympathised with the Lunars from the start
was we could see another influence in Greg's mind was the previous time the
rugged individualists had been up against the evil Red Empire: 1776! And in
any Gloranthan film we knew just what nationality of actors were going to be
playing the Lunars.
But I digress. The Soviet analogy began as a humorous reference to the
origins of Glorantha but proved useful in a number of ways. The analogy
works on five levels, which I think makes it rather more useful than a (I
hope its was just for argument's sake) "lets use the Incas as a model
because I know about them"
- The Soviet Union is an excellent example of an ideological Empire. There
have actually been very few of these in the history of the Real World. It
had an ideology which was particularly its own, shared only by its client
states. And it was an ideology which most outsiders viewed with very deep
suspicion and usually hostility. I think "the Lunar Invasion of Tarsh"
should have the same gut feeling to it that "The Soviet Invasion of
Afghanistan" has, rather than the Sassanid invasion of Georgia, the Ummayad
Invasion of Persia. This is one reason why I think the Red Army conjures up
the right sort of feelings. It is an army with an ideological purpose behind
it. The Party seems to me an excellent model of the way membership of the
specifically Lunar cults works.
- Most modern people reading about the Lunar Empire will probably see
nothing wrong in the Lunar Way. It seems a benevolent and reasonable
ideology. This is exactly the feeling which many of us (perhaps not in
America) have about Socialism. Yet the Soviet Union was an atrocious state,
with hypocrisy, corruption and down-right evil from the top downwards. In
many ways it could not be distinguished from the hierarchical feudal Russian
Empire which had proceeded it. Isn't this the way that we all see the Lunar
Empire? Count Julan may be James Bond in armour but behind him is Appius
Luxius the Sinister "Provincial Overseer", behind him Grand Master
Orsorkhon, and behind him the yet darker forces, (as we saw in the British
run of "Life of Moonson") working for the accession of Damien the Monster
Emperor. The Rough Guide to Glamour is just the latest in a line of Lunar
Propaganda documents telling us all is for the best in this, the best of all
possible Empires, playing on the fact that most of us have gamed in Sartar
and Pavis, where we can see just how nice and benevolent the Lunars really
are.
- For relations between Lunars and historic Pelorian cultures, the Soviet
Union is an excellent model. It positively gloried in its ethnic diversity.
"Indissoluble Union" (the Soviet National anthem) goes on about it, and you
could hardly buy an Intourist brochure which didn't have a pageant of the
Peoples of the Soviet Union in colourful ethnic garb. The Union was
organised into autonomous (most supposedly independent) republics just like
our Satrapies, Sultanates and Kingdoms. Yet as far as everyone outside was
concerned, it was a Russian Empire, with Russian the main language and the
main culture of its ruling bodies. This is exactly how I see the
relationship between the Empire's Lunarness and its base cultures.
- The base cultures of the Soviet Union are luckily ones which we also draw
on for our other real world analogies. Russia was part of what Obolensky
calls the Byzantine Commonwealth and after the Fall of Constantinople Ivan
the Great declared Moscow as the Third Rome. So, if you want a Soviet take
on the Late Roman Empire, there it is. Next there is the huge Moslem aspect
of the Soviet Union. Islam was certainly an original part of Greg's thinking
behind the Lunar Empire. Just look at the Crescents, the Scimitars, Sultans,
the William Church counter illustrations of Tarshites. The History of the
Lunar Empire is pure rise of Islam (perhaps filtered through the Dune
Books). So, if you want to see Soviet Islam, there it is in Central Asia,
with a skyline of minarets, crescents, domes and red flags. And so on
through all the minorities, Soviet Cossacks, Soviet Steppes Nomads, Soviet
Shamans. They all existed in our real world for us to compare our visions.
Tamberlane the Great must surely be one of the models of Sheng Seleris. And
where are his stamping grounds and tomb? The Soviet Union.
- Soviet chic. Luckily the visual style of the Soviet Union provides enough
red, silver and gold, stars, sickles and so forth to be a ready source of
artistic inspiration. I would suggest that this derives from Greg's
subconscious idea of the way an evil empire should look like.
The Soviet Paradigm, which works for the reasons above, is a very fruitful
source of inspiration. We can deduce that there is a great square at the
heart of Glamour which hosts grandiose military march pasts and over which
Moonson waves from his balcony (we can even deduce its name. The real "Red
Square" has always been called that, even under the Tsars, derived from the
old word for beautiful). Who knows what was at the heart of the Ummayad
Caliphate or the Inca Empire? We know what kind of songs Lunars are likely
to sing, how their propaganda is likely to be worded, the medals they get,
the sort of food served in restaurants, and what the main pleasure park in
the capital is called. These are very handy mental short cuts which I defy
anyone to argue exist if we say the Lunar Empire was rather like Archaemenid
Persia or the Assyrian Empire.
And is anyone going to tell me that the Kallikos Icebreaker was a complete
coincidence?
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #586