RE: Re: What's The Story? Under the Red Moon Challenge

From: donald_at_...
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:07:48 GMT


In message <668969.54302.qm_at_...> Jane Williams writes:
>
>--- donald_at_... wrote:
>
>> In message
>> <784048.86512.qm_at_...> Jane
>> Williams writes:

>> >Basic literacy comes as standard in the Lunar
>> >Empire, remember.
>>
>> No it doesn't. It comes as standard for ordinates of
>> the Seven Mothers cult
>
>That covers your cleaner.

Not the way I see it. Lay member quite possibly, doing drudge work in return for teaching in magic and skills.

>> and pretty much expected for everyone
>> at the ordinate level in Lunar cults
>
>And that covers just about anyone else we might be
>interested in.

So we aren't interested in all the non-lunar cults in the Empire?

Remember according to ILH1 only in Silver Shadow is the Lunar population over 15% and in Doblian it's as low as 5%. Even if we assume all those people are at least ordinates that's only about 10%. Add scribes and other educated people from other pantheons and the literate population is going to be about 15, maybe 20 percent of the total. Which is staggeringly high compared to Sartar where literacy is the preserve of a minority cult.

>> I'd suggest that one of the big things the 7M cult
>> offers to get
>> followers is "The secrets which your rulers are
>> hiding from you in the written word".
>
>Nice idea: so anyone who is even starting to distrust
>their rulers, is literate. Fine.

Doesn't follow. It's an offer made not necessarily one that can be taken up. Nor is the promise necessarily kept. Mass literacy doesn't appear in the RW until the end of the 19th Century when there's an economic need for it.  

>> We could set this up for Continuum - you play Kallyr
>> and we find a few other people to play other roles.
>> Need a bit of scripting beforehand but could be fun.
>
>Why me??? (Don't answer that question).

OK.

>Make sure all our grain priestesses, their husbands, and
>the turncoat Lunars are pre-gen PCs, make sure you've got
>someone (possibly run by you) who can keep Kallyr
>reined in a bit, and this could be a lot of fun.
>Actually, if I run her + unobtrusive followers, and
>have a sign to hold up saying "Ernaldesta whispers in
>Kallyr's ear", that might deal with the "reining in"
>problem.

If it's a standard RPG session the PCs are going to be Kallyr, the three grain priestesses, one or two Lunar turncoats and maybe the owner of the place. All the rest are followers. I'd probably go for each of the priestesses having all their storms which means Kallyr gets Elusu as well as Ernaldesta, Insterid and Offir. It could be done as a freeform with all PCs but that would involve a lot of writing.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

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