I like this idea for an Ernaldan initiation, but from a role-playing point of view, it seems to have problems. How do you make it interesting and fun for the player involved? The normal conventions of myth and of fantasy literature emphasize what might be called a traditionally male set of actions--leaving home, confronting a problem, being changed by the experience and perhaps returning home. I think most gamers find this a satisfying narrative to experience. A more traditionally female narrative-staying at home, waiting for rescue from the outside, being patient and hardworking, and essentially enduring until the prince comes is a much less satisfying narrative for most people (I assume), perhaps because it seems rather passive. How do you make the Rapunzel/Snow White/Sleeping Beauty story interesting to experience from the female viewpoint?
One option is to make the female narrative more 'male'. Ernalda may be sleeping, but she's going looking for something inside of her. The female stays where she is, but goes on a journey into the earth/herself (Jane William's female initiation ritual that she wrote up a while ago does a nice job of making the journey a matter of making choices that have no obvious right or wrong answer). But it does seem to suggest that the 'right' way to tell these stories is with a male gloss, which isn't entirely satisfying to me.
And it's not just initiations--this issue comes up on most feminine heroquests. I've always wrestled with this in my own campaigns. Any thoughts on how to make this work from a gaming standpoint?
Andrew E. Larsen
On 6/22/05 11:00 PM, "glorantha-request_at_rpglist.org" <glorantha-request_at_rpglist.org> wrote:
> rom: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi>
> I just want to add to the previous that I found the ideas, of Ernalda
> initiates facing worse and worse things so that eventually they'll have to
> choose to sleep as the goddess, quite brilliant.
>
> I'll save that for the later _Ernalda_ initiation. After a few days of
> thinking about it and researching I still think that in the first
> initiation all boys and girls will have to learn Heort's and Hengal's
> secrets and face the end of the world. At the end of everything it's not
> just the men that fight. Every living non chaotic thing faced Chaos in I
> Fought, We Won. Men, women, boys, girls, grandparents...
>
> -Adept
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