James
>But the Earth priestess *knows* that the Crops are the most important
>thing.
Agreed. From the POV of the person involved, there is nothing strategic about it. The concept would not even occur. However, that doesn't stop it being a strategic asset by the definition.
>The military keeps the odd nomad horde and trolls away from
>crops, and thus enhances your crop. They're basically farm help with
>shiny toys.
Agreed. Not just that but often _annoying_ idiots with toys who think they can lord it over the common folk cos they have a sword and some shiny metal. Sometimes those same protectors pillage their own people.
>The concern, here is, I believe, whether SGU is going to be chock-full
>of military viewpoint only ("The grain goddesses are a key cult in the
>empire. Their grain is eaten by soliders, whose eating habits...") ;)
No, not at all.
>and not allow people to focus on an aspect of the Big Conflicts besides
>Guys and Dolls with swords. E.g., will you be talking about the
>political, "regional," economic, religious aspects of the Moonson Bad
>Thing from *their* POVs: what does political strife mean to the
>political players?
Yes we will, to a _limited_ degree, as there isn't room. Hopefully this will all come out in other areas or books in the future.
John Huges comments politics in Glorantha:
>Defining purposes are almost *always* mythic in genesis and outcome.
I think that mythic purposes and symbology fill the whole of Gloranthan activty. I agree.
>Gloranthan politics, though secular in effect, can never be considered apart
>from their ritual, mythic and cosmogenic purposes. Outcomes are planned for
>their mythic outcomes,
Agreed totally.
>seldom for power, wealth or authority for its own
>sake.
Here I'd add a caveat, that the myths that remain in use are _often_ (not always) the ones that provide for the best amounts of wealth, authority and power. The best explored myths are the ones that strengthen the people by the power of their gods actions.
>Gloranthan politics, working to mythic imperatives, are often consciously
>self-defeating or self destructive from a secular viewpoint.
Yes, this can happen. The whole White Moon thing is a huge case in point.
>Kingship is a sacred kingship, a priesthood. Tribes and states and even
>empires are mythic, ritual entities.
Agreed!
>Politics is the art of choosing the right ritual.
Also agreed, to a point. Politics is not _just_ mythic though. There are other factors too.
>We need less nineteenth century political theory, and a bit more history,
>ethnography and myth.
I think we need all of the above (though I'd point out that any strategic theory I follow is current as I get most of it from current leading theorists. If you mean the Clausewitz reference as a 19th Century thinker, he is alive and well in strategic study today, as much as Sun Tzu and Machiavelli is).
Glorantha is mythic but its also human. The motivations that we all feel, survival, shelter, actualisation are all the same for most Gloranthans and political analysis is vital to understand how their states tick and are created. The history of Glorantha is one of conflict and change. How that evolves is interesting and worthy of thorough work IMO.
Martin Laurie
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