Fwd: [HeroWars] Re: Are Gloranthans Human?

From: Gianfranco Geroldi <giangero_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 06:45:26 -0800 (PST)


Forwarded from the Hero Wars list.
Believe it or not, in my campaign these issues *are* relevant.
That's the reason why I was uncertain about the right place for this thread (Digest or HWList).

Actually our campaign is not centered on the classical Heortling Tula vs Evil Empire topos: we introduced a terrestrial astronaut PC in Glorantha and our heroes are very different one from the other (a Zzaburite, a Carmanian, an Etyries and a Praxian + the astronaut). Therefore the comparison between RW humanity (and technology) and Gloranthan humanity (and magic) is one of the central issues *in* play.

this is a relevant fact IMO. Our astronaut PC tries to use technology, but it seems that magic is more "economical" (easy to obtain) than technology in Glorantha. My opinion (as the narrator) is that the drawback is implicit: magic in glorantha is easy to obtain (given a determined powergaming attitude) but it tends to mold, focus, refine the hero's "humanity" much more than technology does.
Also, magic encourages the repetition of past acts (heroquesting) and so epytomizes (sp?) conservatorism. Technology is a progressistic force (I don't say this is a good or evil fact) because it pushes forward itself.

Ttrotsky:
> True enough, but this doesn't make you 'not human'.

if you become part of Orlanth, you are wind, not man anymore. Gloranthans tend to become less and less human (according to the POV of a XX century astronaut lost in XVII century Glorantha like in my campaign) when they advance on the roads of their magics.

> The ancient
> Egyptians, for instance, didn't change all that much
> in thousands of
> years.

Are you sure?
We tend to flat ancient cultures and ancient peoples when we look at them from 2002 AD.

Ciao,
Gian



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