Re: Afghans and Orlanthi

From: Mark Galeotti <mark_at_...>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 03:44:06 -0000

• In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "markmohrfield" <markmohrfield_at_z...> wrote:
  > > The irony is, after all, that whatever the reasons for their
  > invasion and whatever the obvious atricities and blunders of their
  > occupation, the Lunars really do offer a much more equal role for
  > women...
  >
  > But many of the Lunar cultures(Dara Happans, Carmanians) seem even
  > worse off than the Orlanthi in that respect.
  

Absolutely, but this is one of the things about the Lunars is that I find so compelling: they are also revolutionary _within_ the Empire. Take the ghastly, stratified, chauvinist, exclusive, snobbish and priggish Dara Happans. Amongst those of them who really care, largely the elite, it really sticks in their craw that a _Lunar_ Emperor now sits on the throne. Given that he passed the Ten Tests through which Yelm indicates and anoints the true Emperor of Dara Happa, they cannot gainsay his claim but nonetheless they regard much of the Lunar Credo as dangerous claptrap. It is there that the Lunar Way is really undermining traditions -- widening fault lines that will break open violently in the Hero Wars.

Of course, like all revolutionaries, the Lunars do much that is wrong, especially when they tell themselves that it is in the Greater Good. That is always the tragedy of idealism.

All the best

Mark